


Fake It Till You Make It

by siriuslydraco



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Cliche af, F/M, au-no culebras, totally au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-07 10:01:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21456205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siriuslydraco/pseuds/siriuslydraco
Summary: the one where Kate needs a boyfriend, and Seth is all too willing to pretend.
Relationships: Kate Fuller/Seth Gecko
Comments: 110
Kudos: 170





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello beautiful sethkate fandom!! This one is totally based on the movie The Wedding Date and I'm not even ashamed that it's so cheesy. Also I had to make up a few characters for the purpose of the story as we're not given much background to Kate's family. So here's the first chapter and I hope everyone enjoys x

Kate scowled at her phone screen for what felt like the hundredth time today- her sparkling green eyes dulling with each passing second as she read the annoyingly persistent messages in the group chat she had been forcibly added to.

_Darla & Bridesmaids_ was the ingenious title of said group chat, and it consisted mostly of Kate's cousin Darla (who would be getting married in less than a week) nattering on about her wedding plans and Kate's other cousins delightfully replying. Kate on the other hand had not yet replied to most of the texts shared in the group chat since it had been created two days ago and she was one hundred percent decided that she was not going to simper to her cousin like the others were doing. 

_We're having the best vacay in Mexico, but we can't wait for the wedding!!_ A message popped up from another one of Kate's cousins, followed by a selfie of her with her husband and three year old daughter. A pang of jealousy shot straight through Kate and the reason for her being so bitter towards this whole wedding fiasco became evident then in her mind. 

She was single, and the rest of the bridal party were not. Hell the whole _wedding party_ were probably in committed relationships and little Miss Kate would have to sit her single ass at the kids table. It was humiliating to her to be nearly half way out of her twenties and unable to keep any man interested for too long. There had been Rafa who she had dated for less than a month and had never even gotten intimate with, then she'd had a ridiculous crush on some guy from her university who had never even paid any sort of attention to her. Of course there had been Kyle Winthrop, sweet church boy Kyle who had turned into the man of her dreams (or so she thought) but that hadn't ended well. They had been together almost three years but that whole relationship had horribly side-tracked itself and if Kate was being honest she didn't even want to think of him. 

Now however she was pining after someone who definitely held no romantic interest in her whatsoever. She sighed to herself and leaned against the bus stop she was stood at as she pictured plump lips, dark eyes and the most fascinating tattoo.....

More dots appeared in the little speech bubble on her phone- followed by more incessant messages that were sickly sweet to read. Kate just knew her cousin was loving all this attention she was getting and perhaps that had been the reason in creating the group chat in the first place. Darla had always been that way, even when they were younger she had to be better than Kate at everything, and had loved rubbing her nose in her triumphs whenever they spent summers together as children. _Look at my swimming trophy, Katie. Did Mama tell you that I won my gymnastics competition? Did you hear I got crowned prom queen? Oh Katie, Josh and I got engaged!_

Kate just huffed to herself as she remembered spending all those summers in Tennessee with the overbearing relatives from her mothers side of the family. She had hated being away from Bethel and all her friends, but the year that Darla had come to visit Kate had made her regret ever asking her mother to have their annual family gathering in Texas instead. Darla had become so popular with the teenage residents of Bethel during that particular summer that it seemed all of Kate's friends had liked her better. She and Jessica had struck up a friendship and Kate had caught them whispering and giggling in Kate's direction too many times for her liking. 

Then Darla had met Josh, the two had continued to correspond and what do you know....almost six years later they're getting married. 

A large and rather empty looking bus pulls up then and Kate breaths a sigh of relief when she spots that it does not look overcrowded at all. She had spent the day walking around the shopping markets in town looking for a stupid dress to wear to the rehearsal dinner, but everything she had picked up was either too skimpy or not classy enough. She could practically hear the southern drawl of her mothers sister in her ear. Not very tasteful, Kate. A lady would not wear a dress that short, Kate. 

For most of her life, Kate Fuller had been prefect. Not that naturally, easy come sort of perfect that just radiated from every pore and out into the world. No, she had been taught to be that way by her parents. Always smile in church. Always be charitable. Always be kind. Sit straight. Don't cross your legs. Study. Get good grades. 

Kate had been perfect to a fault and had left no room for scrutiny from anyone- most of all her family. She'd been a good daughter, a good student and had graduated top of her class and had become a teacher like she'd always wanted to be. But despite her perfectness, it hadn't helped in stopping her mothers suicide or her fathers alcoholism or her long term relationship going to shit. And she just knew that this wedding would be a reason for her elderly nosy relatives to poke at the wounds of her life. 

Poor Kate, with no Mama and an alcoholic father. And oh didn't you hear that the Winthrop boy left her? 

Her phone buzzed in her lap almost frantically and she sighed when she read the name on the screen, leaning against the window of the bus as she held the phone to her ear. She felt as if the world's supply of irony was manifesting itself in her life right now because she had literally been thinking about her condescending relatives, and here was one calling her. 

"Aunt Nancy" her voice was tired as she spoke and she could feel her feet start to throb in her sneakers from all the excessive walking she had done today, but she had a feeling this conversation would leave her even more drained. 

"Katie, darling. How are you? I've just been making up the final draft of the names for the wedding reception. I'm getting the table cards done this week you see, and I noticed you never sent an rsvp back" her mother's sister nattered on. Kate could almost imagine how she'd be sitting in a lounge chair on her deck with a cigarette in her hand- an obtuse swirl of smoke dancing around her overly hair sprayed head. Kate leaned further into the bus seat. 

"Well I am a bridesmaid, Aunt Nancy. I assumed it would be obvious I'd be attending the wedding" she tried not to sound cheeky, she really did. But the indignant huff that her aunt responded with seemed to tell Kate she had not succeeded in that challenge. 

"It's just common courtesy, Kate. I mean even our neighbours sent out their responses, and nearly the whole congregation here has. Don't forget some of the families from Bethel too, like the Parkers and the Winthrops, even your Daddy was able to reply, and in his condition no less. Oh and Darla tells me you've not responded to any of her messages that she's been sending out. She really does worry for you, you know. Ever since last year when that unfortunate incident happened -" 

"What did you say, Aunt Nancy?" Kate interrupted her aunt's babbling with a quivering voice- she could feel her heart begin to pound in her chest. Even the quip about her father had gone unnoticed "did you say the Winthrops?" 

"Why yes of course I said the Winthrop's. Kate try to keep up with the conversation. As I was saying, Darla -" 

"Surely you don't mean Kyle Winthrop?" Kate was definitely starting to panic now, the image of her ex swimming around in her mind as she felt the pain of the past come back to haunt her. The bus jolted to a stop and Kate hurried from her seat and towards the door before the driver decided to head on- all the while holding the phone tightly to her ear to hear Nancy's response. 

"Kate, interrupting someone when they are trying to tell you something is not very ladylike. But yes, I mean Kyle and his parents. Did you really think Josh would get married without his best friend. Kyle is the best man, Kate. I thought you knew this?" 

Her Aunt was a gossip and a nuisance at her worst times, but she really wasn't all that bad. Kate knew she hadn't brought up Kyle to be particularly hurtful, and by the sound of her voice she really had believed Kate had known he was attending the wedding. 

"No, I didn't know that" Kate stopped her walking on the sidewalk- the Texan heat beating down on her shoulders that were covered only by the thin green spaghetti straps of her sundress. She felt like the world was coming to a stop also and that at any minute the ground was going to swallow her up. She wanted it to. 

She had been dreading this familial fiasco of a wedding for weeks. Now it had just gotten so much worse. 

"Darla must have forgotten to mention it, she's been very busy you know. But he's coming with his parents and that new fiancée of his. I can't be sure whether I like the sound of her to be honest, but we'll see what we make of her when she arrives" Nancy said, and Kate couldn't hear the rest of her rant because the words were lost to her ears. She stood in the middle of the sidewalk, one hand clutching the phone to her ear desperately and the other shakily resting on her chest. She could feel the thrum of her heart under it. She felt like she was going to get sick.

Fiancée. The word felt like a blow to the chest, or a rapid bullet wound to the knee. Kate could taste something steely in her mouth and when she brought her hand to her lip it came back bloody. She'd bitten into it that hard. 

"I have to go, Aunt Nancy" Kate said almost mutely, feeling her heart sink to the bottom of her chest. 

"Before you go, you must respond to the rsvp. Are you coming alone or are you bringing a plus one?" 

Kate thought then of sitting in the pews of a church surrounded by doting couples as they looked on at the bride and groom. She thought of how Kyle would dance and twirl his fiancée around, both of them impatient for their big day. She thought of how she'd be left sitting down when the couples dances would play. She knew her Daddy would offer his hand, but she'd be a fool to take it. 

She thought of being alone with everyone's eyes on her. Poor Kate, didn't you hear she was dumped by Kyle Winthrop? Two years together gone down the drain. 

"I'm not coming alone" Kate answered before she could stop herself "I'm bringing my boyfriend" 


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for letting me know Kyle was best man! _

** _Katie, I wanted to tell you! _ **

_A_ _ week before the wedding? Real smooth, Darla. You know I don't even feel like going to your wedding anymore! _

** _I didn't know how to say it to you! I'm so so so sorry. Please forgive me. You're my favorite cousin, my maid of honor, I need you there._ **

Kate throws down her phone on the bar top as she reads over her cousin's latest text, glaring into the now empty shot glass that sits there like a warning to slow down. She hadn't returned home after that disastrous phone conversation with her Aunt but had found her feet idly trailing towards Jed's bar. It wasn't officially open yet of course, seeing as it was still mid day, but she knew her friends would probably be prepping for the night ahead and before she knew it she had been slipping through the back door. 

Kisa now stands before her, behind the bar, wiping glasses clean and stacking them neatly in piles. Her dark eyes roam over Kate every so often as Kate recounts the nightmarish declaration that she had thrown upon her Aunt. Richie is almost two feet away, stocking up the register and trying very hard not to listen in on their womanly dilemma, but Kate can tell he's failing miserably. The multiple shots Kisa has poured her since her arrival has started doing their job and are now making Kate feel more relaxed than she's felt all day. 

"So you told her you have a boyfriend?" Kisa's voice is slow and careful, her pretty head cocked to one side as she surveys the girl in front of her. 

"Yes" Kate groans as yet another wave of embarrassment rushes towards her and covers her in a layer of pink.

She was a moron. Plain and simple. What was going to happen when she showed up at the wedding without a "_boyfriend_"? She'd be the laughing stock of her family. She could just imagine their leering sneers in her direction. _Kate must have been dumped again. Kate didn't really have a boyfriend. Oh did you hear? Our Katie pretended to have a date. How pathetic. _

"But you don't" Richie inputs rather plainly and both women snap their heads in his direction with almost identical glares plastered on their faces.

"Yes, Richard. I know" Kate quips at him glumly, watching as Kisa pours her yet another shot of tequila. This time she pours herself one. 

"Dios mío" Kisa grumbles after downing the harsh tasting shot "men, huh?" 

"At least you have a man" Kate says, her eyes shifting down to the hem of her sundress. She could feel her heart trying to rapidly repair itself every second, only for it to be defeated and break all over again every time a flash of Kyle Winthrop crossed her mind. 

"Sometimes I feel like I'm babysitting a very overgrown child" Kisa tells her as she looks over at Richard, but there is a fondness that flashes in her eyes when she looks at him that doesn't do much to help Kate's feeling of loneliness. 

"Standing right here, baby" Richie gestures to himself, a fake hurt in his eyes but his mouth twitches into a playful smirk. Kate eyes their interaction forlornly as she cups her face, her bottom heavy lips downturned in a pout. 

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Kisa. I can't face this wedding alone now that _he_ will be there" Kate has her face in her hands as she speaks, her elbows resting on the recently waxed surface of the bar. 

Kisa's face drops as she looks at Kate, and through her now blurry green eyes she can see pity swimming in Kisa's brown ones. Her friend knew every small detail about her relationship with Kyle, and it was obvious that now she was studying the smaller woman with a heavy veil of sympathy. Kate grimaces slightly at the thought, and finds it even more discomforting that a woman as level headed as Kisa could look upon Kate with something akin to sadness. The only emotion Kate knew Kisa to have was annoyance- that and a hardy sarcasm that dripped from her every pore. 

But she could be kind. Kate had learned that when she had landed here after running from Bethel following her break up. Well it hadn't been anything as dramatic as _running_ exactly. She had just found a teaching job here in Houston, moved at the first chance she got and had started Zumba classes at the local gym. Kisa had been the instructor and had taken a sorry sort of interest in Kate's lack of lustre when it came to swaying her hips and shaking her butt. The two had just become friends really, and all those after session chit chats in between tidying up equipment had turned into coffee mornings and mall trips. 

Kisa was intimidating to look at for women like Kate- who were plain and ordinary- and Kate sometimes felt small in comparison to her. But it wasn't Kisa's fault that she was beautiful, and Kate had just learned to accept that no one looked her way when the taller brunette stood by her side. Kate now wonders in her depressive tequila aroused state if whether Kyle's new fiancée looks like a Kisa and not a Kate. 

She feels her heart constrict in her chest. 

"We could find you a boyfriend" Kisa gently inputs as her eyes glaze over towards the distance like she was thinking a million different things. 

"Find me a boyfriend? What do you mean?" Kate perks up curiously on the bar stool, leaning forward more on her elbows. 

"We could hire you an escort! He could go along to the wedding and pretend, and nobody would think he was being paid" the Mexican beauty declares her idea with an upturned mouth and a devilish twinkle in her eye. Kate doesn't want to ask if she personally knows any escorts, or even where to hire one. Information like that could be kept secret. 

"That sounds like the plot line to that cheesy Debra Messing movie you made me watch" Richie interjects as he makes his way from the register and towards his girlfriend "but I mean the idea isn't too bad. We could find someone who'd pose as your boyfriend" 

"Would you do it, Richie?" Kate almost begs the Gecko, her wide green eyes pleading with his "I'd pay you, and it would only be for a few days. You'd only have to go to the rehearsal dinner and the ceremony"

"Kate, you know you're like a little sister to me and I'd gladly do this for you. But we have a business meeting in El Paso this weekend" Richard tells her with a drop of his shoulders, and with his words Kate's sudden rush of hope dwindles "we're trying to branch out and buy another bar"

"As much as I would have loved for you to take him off my hands for a weekend, God knows I need the peace" Kisa adds with a hand on her small hips "But Richard's right, we're out of town this weekend" 

"Hey, I'm standing right here" Richard repeats his earlier statement- but this time with a little more hurt in his voice. Kisa just eyes him with that dark smoky look and Richard is back to being submissive to his love for her. 

The sound of footsteps waver nearer to the bar at that moment- the slam of a door reverberating in the far distance- and before anyone can begin to question where the source of the noise is coming from a dark and handsome figure presents itself.

_S__eth Gecko._ Kate sighs rather audibly when she swivels around on her stool and watches him walk towards the bar with that purposeful walk of his. He's dressed in all black like he is most days and she can just about spot the flame tattoo that rides up his arm peeking out from under the collar of his shirt.

She had thought Richard was fairly handsome when she'd first been introduced to him by Kisa, but God above that she prayed to every night, when she'd met his brother she had thought he was like a work of art. 

Seth Gecko made men like Kyle Winthrop look like school boys. With just one look at the handsome rogue, she can feel her desperation sink itself into the back of her mind. 

"Richie we need to talk" Seth announces (without greeting anyone else or taking notice of his surroundings) in that gravely voice that always seemed to make the hairs on Kate's arms stand up. She loved his voice. 

She watches him as he comes around the bar, purposefully striding towards Richie with a determined look in his eye but when he finally spots Kate sitting on the stool, all depiction of persistence vanishes from his eyes. He looks at her softly like he normally does- all flickering eyelashes and curved lips- and Kate can't help but blush. She's not naïve enough to believe he feels the same way she feels about him (she's not even sure what she feels for him exactly) because she's sure she's seen him look at other girls that way when they come into Jed's late at night. 

But the concern that quickly crosses his face when he eyes the shot glass in front of her and takes in her strained looking appearance is reserved for her and her alone.

Seth Gecko cares for very few people, and Kate Fuller is definitely high on the list.

A year ago he hadn't a clue who she was, but Kisa had introduced her to them one late night at the bar. _This is my friend, Kate_. And then all of a sudden she'd become a somewhat permanent fixture to his life and he just fucking cared, alright? 

"You alright, princess?" Seth asks Kate softly, ignoring his brother and Kisa's eyes that are no doubt boring holes into the side of his head. He just focuses on her and her alone, his eyes flickering all over her soft looking face that seems to droop along with her shoulders. Her green eyes that are normally so sparkly are dimming with each passing second. 

"Not really" Kate mumbles at him, her hands idly picking at the bowl of peanuts that sit in front of her. Her eyes stare back into his so deeply, as if she's willing him to read her thoughts. It was like that often with Seth- he just knew exactly what she was thinking or what her next move would be. It's something that both unnerves and delights Kate. 

She doesn't really know how Seth Gecko became one of her favourite people but somehow he had just filled that position without warning. And now Kate feels inexplicably drawn to him. 

His eyes hold onto her like a vice, as if he's waiting to decipher whatever confession she'll spill from her lips. But the buzzing that suddenly rings incessantly from the cell in his pocket interrupts whatever their moment had been. He doesn't look to see who it is though- Kate can tell by the way he groans and squeezes his eyes shut that he already knows who it is. It prompts him to place a hand on Richie's shoulder- the dark eyes that had bored into Kate's moments ago now staring into the crystal clear ones of his brother. 

"Richard. We need to talk. Now" Seth says cautiously slow and then he turns back to Kate with a sorry sort of apology written on his face "Kate, rain check on that, okay? I'll talk to you later" 

Kate can only nod to him in her tipsy stupor, feeling utterly idiotic at her lack of ability to articulate any proper sentence. She just watches him walk away with his brother and disappear in the doorway of the kitchen. Kate wonders what has Seth so wound up. Who had been calling him? And why was it so urgent that her misery had to take a back seat? She didn't know whether the tequila was making her feel selfish, but she was undeniably miffed at his dismissal. Well it wasn't really a dismissal- more like a deferral of sorts- but still she wanted Seth to hear her tale of woe and take pity on her. 

God, she was pathetic. No wonder Kyle left her. 

"I just thought of something" Kisa announces, and Kate's eyes jump from the bowl of peanuts and into her brown eyes. There is a look of utter mischief on her face and something deep down inside Kate knows what she's about to suggest. 

"That could potentially be dangerous" Kate mumbles, her hand reaching for the tequila and pouring herself another rather large shot. She downs it quickly- delighting at the sting of it. She's suddenly hit with the utter desire to just get off her face silly drunk, and not just tipsy. 

"Oh he can be very dangerous" Kisa smiles angelically "wears a three piece most days, flame tattoo, big jerk....perhaps it rings a bell?" 

"No" Kate emphasises, shaking her head of auburn hair. She can literally see the idea swimming around in Kisa's eyes and Kate will not entertain it. 

"Yes" Kisa retorts, leaning two manicured hands across the bar "come on Kate, it's the perfect idea. Seth could be your date for the wedding" 

"Definitely not" Kate feels like one of those nodding dogs in the front of a car but she shakes her head yet again as if to rid the image of Seth accompanying her to a family wedding from her mind. 

She'd like it- perhaps a little too much. And that would not be a good idea. 

"Why not? I see the way you look at him, Kate. It's gone way past friendship for you" Kisa says, and Kate bristles on the stool at the uncomfortable thought that Kisa has perhaps been too perceptive. She hasn't told anyone about her crush on Seth because why would she? It was just a crush right? And she'd be an idiot not to have a crush on him. Wouldn't she?

It was just a crush and nothing else. It wasn't like she lay awake some nights because her mind wouldn't let her sleep with thoughts of him- replaying their conversations in her mind and dissecting each word and smile shared between them. It wasn't like her whole body thrilled when he called her princess, or at the soft way he said Kate. It wasn't like she had turned down potential dates because she was waiting for him to ask her. Of course it was just a silly crush. 

"Well it doesn't matter what I think of him because he doesn't feel the same" Kate tells her with a frown that she can't stop from forming on her face "and I am definitely not asking him to be my date because I just......" 

_Couldn't bear the thought of Seth pretending when I would want it all to be real. _

"Doesn't feel the same?" Kisa asks her with a defiant hip jut and an eyebrow raise "Kate, I've known him for years now and he's never cared about anyone other than Richie. But then you came along and I don't know it was like he just trusted you or something. I just know he'd do anything for you. He looks at you like you put the stars in the sky. Perhaps you can't see it, but everyone else can" 

"I don't know, Kisa" Kate sighs- fully intent on the matter of not believing that Seth Gecko looked at her as if she was the one who hung the stars. Kisa was mad. That was the explanation. 

"Think about it, Kate. You've gotten yourself into this mess, and you need to do something to get yourself out of it. Either tell your family the truth or bring a fake date" Kisa shrugs fluidly, eyeballing Kate hard "and between you and me, I don't think Seth would be the worst looking person to bring on your arm" 

* * *

"Why do situations like this always happen when things are finally going good?" Richard's blue eyes are steely and narrowed as he rests them on his brothers tormented looking face. Seth stands beside him, palms flattened against the cold metal of the bar's kitchen worktops with his shoulders hunched- and Richard is sure he hasn't seen him look this worried in a long time. 

Seth's cell phone that now rests on the counter hosts dozens of incessant messages and missed calls- and it sits there almost glaringly and brazen. Seth pushes it away roughly and stands up straighter then. 

"Fuck knows, Richard! Luck hasn't always been on our side most of the time, you know that!" Seth breaths out heavily- rough palms coming to run down his handsome face. Richard stands a little closer, eyeballing the kitchen doorway every few seconds to make sure no one is standing there eavesdropping. 

"Can't you just tell her to fuck off?" Richard states bluntly. He feels as if he's said the same thing to Seth countless times in the past whenever _she_ arose in conversation. Richard had intuitively known exactly what Seth's hurried confession was going to be about as soon as he'd pulled him away from the bar not minutes ago. He'd had a feeling in his gut that it would be about _her_. Nausea, Richard thought smugly, that was it. 

"Yeah you try saying that to a woman like Vanessa. She's.....my _wife_, Richard" Seth made sure he spoke quietly- his own eyes now darting towards the doorway "I know we're not the standard picture of marriage, but on paper she's still Mrs Gecko, and I've still gotta look after her" 

"Look after her?" Richard questions with a raise of a thick eyebrow above the dark rim of his glasses "most spouses want you to cook them dinner, or buy them flowers....not hand them out ten grand! You're fucking crazy, Seth. This isn't looking after her, this is appeasing her so she doesn't show up here and make your life miserable like the leech she is" 

"Alright, I get it. I'm an idiot. Let's all just poke fun at Seth, and not give a shit about his problems" Seth grumbles with a grit of his teeth, his arms folding across his chest in the same defiant way he used to display when he was younger and he and Richie would have a fight. 

"Hey, no one said anything about not giving a shit. I don't want your crazy ass wife coming down here to ruin our lives either! I care, alright? But I'm sick of this, Seth. You need to just divorce her and move the hell on" 

"You don't think I haven't thought of that? That's the whole grand finale to this shit show, alright? But if I don't pay her off first I know she'll never sign the papers" Seth grimaces slightly at the image of Vanessa firing off at him if he didn't get the money for her.

He's done so many stupid things in his life, and marrying Vanessa in a drugged up stupor in Vegas was definitely one of them. But he's in this mess now and he can't see any other solution. Vanessa had never really wanted him, just the money that he had been good at stealing. 

"You forgot the fact that she'll probably tell the whole state of Texas that you're an ex bank thief" Richard has the cheek to smirk, and Seth's fist clenches with the desire to punch it off his face. 

"Shut up, Richard. Anyone could hear you" Seth's whole body tenses with the memory of his past crimes and his eyes yet again glance quickly to the doorway and back to his brother. He's still smirking like the smarmy prick he is. 

"Anyone? Oh you mean Kate?" Richard questions- he too folds his arms, and the fucking git _smiles_. Seth really has to try restrain himself from hitting him. 

"What?" Seth dumbly answers but he can feel his heart skip a beat in his chest like the traitor it is. 

"You mean you don't want your precious Kate to hear that you were once incarcerated for armed robbery. What would the preachers daughter think of you then?" 

"This is the reason people like me better than you" Seth says as he gestures between him and his brother with a hand "you talk shit, Richard. Always have" 

"Oh yeah? I talk shit, huh? How about the fact that you turn into a marshmallow whenever the girl is around? Or the fact that she's one of the two people you care about in the world. How is that talking shit? It's the truth, brother" 

"Three people" Seth corrects automatically without even blinking away the eye contact he's holding with his brother.

"Huh?" Richard cocks his head to the side. 

"You forgot Eddie. So there's three people in the world I care about. But if you keep talking like how you're talking now, there really will be only two people in the world I care about. And you'll be dead" Seth says rather plainly, but inside he's grimacing at the fact of how fucking _perceptive_ Richie always is. Seth had thought his fascination with the bible thumpers daughter had been discreet enough to be considered friendship and nothing else- but obviously not. He liked Kate, so what? She was a kind girl, and they were friends. That was it. 

"You forgot the part where you were also involved in all of..._that_" Seth waves a hand around, gesturing towards the earlier statement of his past. Richie had been just as involved in bank heists as his older brother- but he'd been lucky enough not to get caught. 

"Well the difference is my girl already knows that about me" Richard shrugs nonchalantly and almost lazily- an action that irritates Seth to no end. 

"Kate is not my girl" Seth grits his teeth together as he narrows his dark eyes on his brothers face "and you're deflecting, Richard. None of this is relevant to the situation. Vanessa needs money, and I need to get it" 

"How much do you have?" Richard questions steadily- all sort of playfulness gone from his eyes since Vanessa's name has been brought up again. 

"I've got seven floating around from the last job. Kept it safe for a rainy day. But she wants ten, so I just have to find another three in the next week and then everything will be fine" Seth doesn't know who he's trying to convince with his words but his brother doesn't look persuaded towards the situation at all. 

"Is this why you pulled me aside? You want me to give you the rest of the money? No, no fucking way Seth" Richie shakes his head almost violently- his dark rimmed glasses sliding down his nose. 

He fucking _hates_ how perceptive his brother is. 

"Richard, I'd pay it back. I mean this place isn't exactly suffering you know, I'd have three grand made in no time. I just don't have the time to wait when Vanessa is threatening to come here next week" Seth tries to negotiate but Richard's having none of it. He sets his jaw defiantly and folds his arms. 

"Remember when you and Vanessa were high in Vegas and came knocking on my hotel door to tell me you'd just gotten hitched? Remember when I told you that you'd regret it and there'd come a day when you'd need my help to get away from her and I was just going to laugh at you? Yeah this is that day, Seth. So ha ha fucking ha" Richard venomously says- eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed. 

"Real mature, Richard" 

"I've got my own shit to deal with and my own girl to worry about without having to sort your problems" Richie says, watching as Seth leans against the countertop where their in house cook makes their famous wings that everyone in Houston seems to go crazy for "why don't you call up one of your shady friends? Malvado?" 

"Changed man, remember?" Seth points at himself sarcastically "I'm done with all that organised crime shit, and I am never getting involved with Malvado again. I made that pretty clear the last time. The Geckos are legit now" 

It seems that hours tick by after Seth speaks because not one word passes between the two brothers for ages- and as Seth looks at Richie he can almost see the wheels in his brain turning with ideas. Seth thinks his ideas so far have been pretty shit. He won't help his own brother but he'll suggest getting back in contact with a mob boss? Nice move, genius. 

"Kate needs help" Richard seems to mumble out loud, and his words make Seth stand up straight and his eyes jump straight to the door where he knows she sits beyond at the bar. At least Seth hopes she's still there. She had looked so sad earlier and he had promised he'd be back with her later to talk. 

"What?" Seth says a little too loudly but Richard just sighs exasperatedly. 

"I don't mean now in this present moment, Casanova. She needs help with a family thing" Richard languidly leans against the counter as he talks and Seth calms down a little as he hears the words. 

"A family thing?" Seth questions stupidly- not having a clue what Richard is even talking about or why Kate and her family has anything to do with Seth's problems. 

"Long story, but she needs a date for a family wedding and she's willing to pay someone to go with her. Not saying she'll pay the full three grand but at least it could be a help?" Richard suggests this idea to Seth like it was something normal that people did all the time. Pay someone for a date? 

"You're suggesting I go to this wedding with Kate.....and get paid for it? I'm not a male escort!" Seth fumes a little, annoyed by the whole situation now more than he had been before. He'd never allow Kate to actually pay him for a date when he has imagined bringing her on a real one countless times. 

"Now there's another idea!" Richard laughs when Seth loudly groans with his head in his hands. 

"It's a ridiculous one, and I'm not listening to anything else you have to say" Seth tells his brother with a dismissive hand wave, and whatever Richard goes to say next is lost as a soft rap on the kitchens door sounds out. 

Seth's eyes snap towards it, and that treacherous heart of his does a flip when he sees Kate standing there in the flowy emerald green sundress she'd chosen to wear. He can see the smattering of freckles across her sun tanned shoulders and the red streaks on the tops of her thighs where she must have gotten slightly burnt today. Seth swallows thickly as she smiles at him and he can feel Richard's eyes studying his every move. 

"Everything alright?" she asks in that soft Texan accent he's become addicted to hearing, and all he does is nod dumbly. 

"Oh everything's fine. I was just leaving" Richard quips cuttingly with a glare towards his brother, and then he's stalking past Seth and out the kitchen door. Seth lets out a breath he hadn't known he'd been hoarding away when Kate makes her way towards him- a little unsteadily. 

He can smell the sweet scent of lime and tequila off of her and there's a tipsy sort of glaze in her eyes. 

Her thick hair is swept over her shoulder, and he notices the sun tinged auburn red running through it as she twirls it around her finger. The sun is good to her, Seth thinks, it makes her look even more beautiful. She's nervous about something though, he can tell it by the way she doesn't meet his eyes and how her curls are getting more tangled around her fingers each passing second. 

"You alright, princess?" he asks her softly, her nickname he'd christened her the first time he'd met her just rolling off his tongue like a prayer. She looks at him then, green eyes blown with something that looks like fright, and he instinctively puts a hand on her arm. 

"Yeah, I'm fine" Kate says, dimples appearing at the corners of her mouth when she gives him a smile that he knows is forced. She turns away from him then, brushes off his arm as she hops up onto the counter. He should give her some cheeky comment about cross contamination in the kitchen but he just keeps his mouth shut. She's never this off with him- never this unwilling to be close to him. 

"Come on, kid. Spit it out" Seth leans against the steel worktop opposite her and folds his arms across his big chest "I said we'd talk later. It's later so tell me all your woes" 

"It's embarrassing" Kate tells him with a pout- her green eyes captivating him in their sparkly hold as they gaze into his. Seth thinks then of the predicament Richie had said Kate was in, but wonders why it would make her this upset. Surely not having a date to a wedding wasn't the worst thing in the world? 

"My whole life is embarrassing sometimes" Seth shrugs his shoulders at her "so I'm sure I've experienced worse" 

She launches into it then- all tipsy ramblings about nosy relatives and annoyed exasperations at herself for "being so stupid" as she puts it, for faking she had a boyfriend. Seth listens to her as she describes her mothers family- specifically her Aunt and cousin who just seem like your typical southern belles next door- and doesn't interrupt her once. He finds his heart does some sort of icy stand still when she mentions the whole fiasco with Kyle being the best man. He'd heard about her ex before, but he has never seen her become visibly upset over the guy. Seth wishes then and there he could maybe punch Kyle.

When she's finished she just sits there on the counter, breathing deeply and eyeing Seth with an undecipherable expression on her face. It's a mixture of fear and pure unadulterated disappointment with herself. Seth can't bear the fact she's hurting in some way over some guy who had broken up with her a year ago. But even though he knows it must hurt her, he can't quite understand the motive behind lying about a relationship. So what if they weren't together anymore? Was it really that bad to go to a wedding he'd be at? 

"So what are you going to do?" Seth asks her, his mouth slightly dry as she shifts on the counter- her green dress riding up her thigh a little. He's glad then that Richie is nowhere to be seen because he'd definitely gloat about Seth's apparent melting at the sight of Kate's leg. God he was pathetic when it came to her, but god could strike him down if he ever so much as admitted it to his brother.

"I was hoping you could help me" Kate's voice is so soft that it's almost a whisper. But Seth hears it as clearly as if she'd shouted it at him. 

"Me?" he points to himself dumbly and watches as Kate nods her head- a stain of embarrassment colouring her cheeks. 

"I already asked Richie but he can't do it because he's out of town, and I thought I'd ask you before asking a stranger to do it. I'll pay you well, of course. I don't really care how much because you'd be doing me a favour that I'd be forever grateful for. You'd really be helping me, Seth" Kate rambles quickly while dropping her eyes from his.

"Kate, I really don't think that would be a good idea" Seth tells her slowly before tilting his head and pursing his lips a little.

He can't seem to picture himself accompanying Kate to Jesus town or wherever the fuck, and smiling and simpering to Kate's altar eating family. It'd be like a living nightmare to be among people that would surely condemn him to the fiery pits of hell if they only knew the real him. Kate would surely do the same if she knew he had spent five years in prison, and he has to swallow a thick lump in his throat at the thought. But another part of his mind knows he can't possibly venture past the line of friendship with Kate, despite how much he would like to, and going along with a story and pretending to be her boyfriend would be crossing that line wholeheartedly. 

"All you'd have to do is just stand there and say yes every time someone asks if you're my boyfriend. I really can't face my family and my ex alone, and if I had someone there it'd be a bit easier. Look, after the wedding we'd just go back to normal and my family will never know the truth" Kate almost begs him but Seth only sighs heavily with the conflicting thoughts in his head. 

Kate needs help, and Seth wants to give it to her. But at the same time he doesn't want to pretend with Kate, not when she owns the heart beneath his chest- even if she doesn't know it. 

"Maybe you should ask someone else, Kate" he doesn't mean it to sound so unemotional but it comes out flat, and the hurt that flickers across Kate's face threatens to end him then and there.

Forget Vanessa and her impending blackmail, Kate's sorrowful eyes seems to be the thing that will cause him torment. She just nods slowly without a word and clumsily jumps down from the counter- the tequila coursing through her veins the reason her hands go flat against the steel to stop her from falling. Seth makes his way towards her with outstretched hands (he can't help himself really) but she turns away from him. 

"You can't even _pretend_ to be in a relationship with me? I get it, it's fine. I should never have listened to Kisa, this was a stupid idea" Kate tells him with such hurt in her voice that it stifles Seth right where he stands.

She has her back to him now and he thinks she's started to cry when he hears her sniffle- and that thought is proven correct when he turns her back around with two gentle hands on her shoulders. Her emerald eyes are glistening with unshed tears and the sight of it makes Seth glide his hands from her shoulders to her face. She audibly sighs at the contact but Seth pushes the reason for it to the back of his mind. 

"It's not that, princess" he tells her with as much reassurance as he can muster and then he drops his large hands from her face. She leans back away from him then- an undeniable tension in the air- and rests her back against the worktop. Her chest is rising and falling unsteadily and Seth finds it hard to look away from her when her sundress is clinging tightly to her breasts in a tantalisingly way. 

"Then, why?" she asks him with a watery eyed look and a pretty pout on her mouth. 

_Because_, Seth wants to say to her, _I think I might love you and I don't want to fucking pretend and make this all an act_. 

"Won't it be weird?" he says instead- inwardly condemning himself for being so idiotic "I mean for you, of course. Wouldn't you rather just face this alone instead of having to lie the whole time you're there?" 

"Seth, I planned my whole life around this man and he left me because I wasn't good enough anymore. Now he has someone else and they're engaged and I couldn't deal with how people would look at me if I went alone. Like I was still pining after him, or that I hadn't moved on with my life when he had. If I had a _boyfriend_" she puts her hands up to mime air quotes as she speaks "it wouldn't be so bad because then it would look like I'm not as pathetic as I really am" 

"Are you still in love with him?" Seth asks her with a fold of his arms, looking at the ground instead of her eyes. 

"I lost all love for him a long time ago" Kate answers, and Seth can tell there's truth in her words. It makes him exhale deeply "but I don't want him to think I still care, or that what happened has made me unable to move on with my life" 

"What happened?" Seth looks at her now with eyes full of curiousness.

He had wanted to theoretically punch Kyle earlier- but if he learned he had hurt Kate physically or emotionally in any way then he'd definitely have to attend this wedding so he could punch him for real. Kate sighs a little and kicks an imaginary spot on the floor with the toe of her white pumps as she thinks about her words. She's still a little tipsy- Seth can see it in the way she clumsily keeps swaying and in the glaze in her eyes- but he can tell she wants her words to be careful and not drunkenly rushed. 

"We were engaged, you know?" she tells him softly- and he feels his heartbeat falter at her words because he had in fact not known that "we'd been together a year and he'd proposed. At the time I thought it was the best thing ever, but now I can see we were too young and too stupid to be engaged. I was only twenty one, but almost everyone in Bethel marries young within the congregation, buys a small house and has a kid within the year. I had just accepted that my life was going to be that way. I still went to college and did my teaching degree, but I accepted the fact that I'd probably become a mom and a wife instead, and that one day Kyle would take over for Daddy and be the preacher and then....." 

"And then?" Seth prompts her softly to go on- their eyes locking cordially. 

"And then I graduated and got a job. I was so busy all the time, and I think somewhere along the lines he must have fallen out of love with me because I came home one night a little earlier than he'd expected and he was screwing someone else on the couch" Kate tells him in a rushed sort of whisper that is laced with the utmost of pain. 

Seth Gecko really wants to punch Kyle now. 

"Oh god, Kate, I'm sorry" 

"It's okay, Seth. I was heartbroken obviously. I threw things and smashed things and I fired my ring at his head, but I know now I wouldn't have been ready for marriage so it was almost a blessing in disguise. I thought he was the man of my dreams but he turned out to be a fraud and a cheat, and I'm glad I'm rid of him. But it still _hurts_, and I don't want anyone else to know that. That's why I'm so desperate for help" Kate explains to him- her green eyes begging for him to understand her plight. But Seth is focused on the words _fraud_ and _cheat_. Now there was too things Seth was good at. Pretending and cheating people out of their money. 

He suddenly feels the urge to go crawl into a dark hole and never remerge because if Kate Fuller can't accept a man who slept with someone else (and rightfully so)- then how could she ever accept a man who had spent five years in a penitentiary for armed robbery and who had once brushed shoulders with Mexican cartel members? A man who is married and hiding a wife no one but Richard knows about. Not that Seth has ever thought he had a chance with Kate, but imagination is a cruel thing and his heart also won't rest without her. 

Perhaps pretending is the closest he will ever get to being hers. The thought rushes forwards then, and Seth just _sighs_ because he just knows he's well and truly _fucked_. How could he let Kate handle this alone now that he knew everything? 

"Alright" he just says simply, and her head cocks to one side confusedly. 

"Alright, what?" 

"I'll do it. I'll go to the wedding with you" Seth tells her and those eyes of hers that had been so sad and forlorn before now seem to sparkle to life and light up her whole face. 

"You will?" Kate almost squeals as she rushes towards him in a flurry of green fabric and sun kissed limbs. 

"You've got yourself a fake boyfriend, princess" Seth smiles against her hair as she hugs him tightly, and he sighs at the feeling of having her so close and in his arms. 

Perhaps pretending won't be so bad after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked this chapter everyone! comments are like hugs so leave me some!! xx


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so I wrote this while drunk?? I apologise if it's shit but hey the prosecco won and I just found my fingers typing. Enjoy guys and please leave a few comments to let me know if you're enjoying it

Seth Gecko doesn't really know how he ended up here.

Well he knows the logical semantics of the situation- he had asked Kate if she needed a ride home after their conversation, and somewhere between Jed's and her place they had ended up parking in a dimly lit lot outside a burger joint. The move had been made to ensure Kate had some solid food in her system to sober her up, and not because Seth wanted to spend an extra hour with her. _Of course not. _

But he really can't place the exact moment he had ended up being such a sucker for her. He's never felt so fragile in the presence of a woman before and right now he feels like a teenager on a date. 

Except this isn't a date, and he's not a teenager anymore. He's thirty three- the grey hairs spattered on his temple a clear indication. 

Kate sighs in the seat beside him, shifting a little to get closer to the small vent in the car that is blasting cool air over them. Seth lets his eyes fall on her for the hundredth time since getting behind the wheel and feels that little twinge in the pit of his stomach go haywire.

She looks beautiful, sitting there in her emerald green sundress with the beginnings of goose bumps forming on her soft thighs because of the breeze, her auburn hair twisting delicately around a finger, and when she brings her lips to suck at the straw in her shake he almost passes out. 

_Fuck_. He was screwed and he knew it. Pretending to be her boyfriend was going to be easy and hard all at the same time. Easy because his feelings for her would allow everything to look real to an outsider, and hard because it would all be over after the damn wedding. 

The sharp buzzing of his cell breaks through the comfortable silence and he almost jumps in the seat when he hears it. Kate snaps out of her blissful strawberry shake induced haziness to let her eyes rest on the phone that sits in the console. Seth hastily picks up the phone, and once he recognises the number he quickly shuts the call off, cursing under his breath as he almost throws it back down. 

"Everything okay?" Kate asks him, that damn straw resting dangerously close to her bottom heavy lips. Seth just nods with a half smile, eyes resting out the window and tracing the blue and red strip lights that run across the length of the burger place. 

"Yeah, princess. Everything's fine" he says as he grabs a fry that lies in the grease stained bag between them and throws it into his mouth. He chews it angrily as he thinks of Vanessa and her audacity to keep calling him.

Yes, she wanted money, and Seth knew that, but she was also under the false delusion that somehow Seth still wanted her. If only she knew, Seth thought to himself, letting his eyes trail down the length of Kate's bare leg. 

But he stops himself short when his memory throws up an image of who he used to be and how he had lived his life. Kate Fuller, the preachers daughter could never be tainted with the likes of him. 

Pretending was all it would ever be. But there is a voice in his head that whispers to him the promise that Kate wants him too- but he shoves it down as he turns to her. 

"So do we have a game plan for this wedding?" Seth asks Kate with a little more enthusiasm in his voice to mask the annoyance he's hiding over his ex wife. Kate looks up from where she's swirling the end of her shake with the red and white striped straw, and when her eyes meet his her lips turn downwards in a frown. 

"What do you mean?" she questions him with a raise of a perfect eyebrow. 

"Where did we meet? How long have we known each other? Am I a millionaire who owns a country club and a yacht or was I your professor in college who you couldn't resist?" he's teasing her now, making her blush which is a reaction he enjoys getting out of her, and she colours pink around her cheeks but rolls her eyes. 

"Don't be gross" she says as she chucks a fry in his direction- he catches it smugly and pops it into his mouth "and besides you're not old enough to have been my professor, and owning a yacht? Too far fetched. We need to just stick to the truth" 

"The truth?" Seth asks her as he shifts in his seat to face her. She tucks a swaying piece of hair behind her ear and drops her eyes to the hem of her sundress before meeting his eyes again. She's uncomfortable with the whole situation- he can tell by her newfound shyness and he feels for how vulnerable she is about the whole thing. 

"Yeah, we just tell them you own a bar in Houston and that we met there one night when I went out with friends" Kate tells him and he sighs dramatically but smiles.

He liked how she wanted to stick to the truth of their first meeting, and Seth knows that spinning a story about catching her eyes from across the room and knowing that she was the one was not going to be far fetched at all.

Because that's how it had happened- for him at least.

He had seen her that night walking into Jed's- a tight black dress on, her hair curled down her back and a gold cross dangling above her chest.

He had felt his heart beat rapidly just from the sight of her- long before Kisa had come up to them that same night with her arm linked around the mysterious girl. This is my friend, Kate- Kisa had said. The rest was history and Seth Gecko had become a little bitch for a five foot nothing Texan bible thumper. 

"Very boring. But I guess you're right. Sticking to the truth leaves little room for error" Seth tells her as he eyes her, his head cocked to one side as he surveys her form that is now pressed against the doorframe- her legs angled towards him. 

"Exactly, because I can't get this wrong. I can't" Kate's voice suddenly sounds breathless and she looks out the windscreen for a minute with eyes that look dangerously close to tearing up. 

"Kate, are you sure this is what you want? You sure it's gonna work?" Seth questions her softly, his hand itching to be placed on her leg but he balls it up into a fist where it rests on his own thigh. She looks at him then with utter determination sparkling in her green eyes and she nods once- decidedly. 

"I want him to think I'm happy and that I don't think about him or what he done to me. I want him to feel small in comparison to you, because I'm sure most men do and I want my family to see me with someone and not gossip and call me lonely or poor pathetic Kate who got cheated on" she furiously air quotes with her hands and Seth has to bite his lip to stop himself from smiling.

She's cute when she's angry and he also feels slight butterflies in his stomach at her offhand comment. He hadn't got a clue what this ex fiance of hers looked like but he sure as hell hoped he could outshine him. 

"You're not pathetic, Kate. You're hurt and angry and that's okay" Seth tells her gently "and fuck it, we'll go to this wedding and show this guy and your stickler family what's up. We'll put on a show for them, alright?" 

"Yeah okay" Kate says with a little more enthusiasm as she looks him in the eye "are you ready for this? We leave in three days"

"I'm ready" Seth smiles at her widely- and genuinely because he is ready. He's so ready to just be with her and be alone with her for once without the presence of his brother and Kisa. He wants to do this because he cares for her, dammit, and he wants to help her overcome any leftover emotion she may have because of the circumstances her life has thrown at her. 

And he just might love her. 

"Good" Kate beams at him as she sticks out a hand across the car " we do this together, partners on this, okay?" 

"Yeah" Seth says as he takes her tiny outstretched hand in his and gives it a shake "partners" 

* * *

"Hey Seth?" Richie yells as he enters his brothers apartment, the slamming of the front door reverberating behind him. 

"In here!" the older Gecko yells, buttoning up a white shirt as he stands in front of the mirror- his dark eyes surveying his reflection.

"So you called to ask me for ties because you want to look nice for this wedding, but you're not being paid?" Richie's voice scatters into the room, a bunch of ties in his hand and as Seth eyes him from the mirror he stands in front of he can't help but roll his eyes. 

He takes the colourful looking multitude of ties from his brothers hand and watches as he phlegmatically strolls across Seth's room. 

He'd explained the situation to Richard almost fifty times on the phone since he'd come back from dropping a rather tired- and thankfully sobered up -Kate home, and now it was getting plain annoying. Seth grimaces yet again as he holds up a rather awful looking tie (a coral blue with yellow stitched diamond shapes) against himself in the mirror, and in one moment of decision it is discarded with all the other rubbish ones that lie on his bed.

Clearly his brothers tie collection does not seem to be an improvement on his own. 

"Jesus Richard, you get these from Uncle Eddie or something? Think they went out of fashion in the seventies" Seth eyeballs a burnt orange one that is just plain ugly and doesn't even bother holding it up in the mirror "and for the hundredth time, no I am not taking money from Kate" 

"So you're just doing this out of the goodness of your heart? Because we all know you're such a charitable soul" Richard says as he languidly sprawls back on Seth's bed, arms folded across his chest. His blue eyes that pierce out behind his glasses are swimming with the smirk he neglects to place on his face, and Seth just glares darkly in response. 

He loves his brother- of course he does. But he does not miss living with him and his permanent smirk. Richard deciding to move in with his girlfriend seems to be a blessing in disguise. 

"I'm doing this because you said no, and she doesn't have anyone else" Seth picks out a dark red one that isn't at all bad. Kate had said she was bringing a red dress with her while she was rambling on during the car ride home, hadn't she? He just shrugs to himself and places it down on the dresser beside him, deciding it wouldn't hurt to pack it. 

"Oh I see, you're just being a good friend and a gentleman and helping some poor unfortunate girl in need of help" Richard says with a laugh and from the mirror Seth can see him smile widely to himself where he lays stretched out under Seth's old movie poster. 

"Why are you being such an ass, Richard? If you've something to say just goddamn say it, alright?" Seth whirls around on him with his shirt now being unbuttoned frantically by his hands. He tosses it on the bed beside his brother and stands in his white wife beater with a glaring look on his face. He knows exactly what Richard is getting at- and he knows he won't like hearing it aloud even though he had just goaded an explanation from him. 

"All I'm saying is I know you're not doing this for free because of your debt to society or whatever. I know you're doing this because of Kate" Richard shrugs as he hugs a pillow to his chest- his blue eyes shimmering with unsaid mischief. 

"Of course I'm doing it for Kate. She _is_ the one who asked me" Seth bristles where he stands- huge bulging arms crossing over his chest. 

"I know that, genius. But doing something for someone and because of them are two different things. You're doing this because you don't want Kate to hurt and be embarrassed in front of her ex and her family. You're doing it because you love her" Richard states simply as if it's the most obvious thing in the world that his brother is in love. Perhaps it is the most evident thing though. 

"Kate is a friend, Richie. That's all" Seth pretends to be interested in the pile of discarded ties on his bed and begins picking them up one by one as if to inspect them one last time. All the while he can feel his brothers eyes on him as they peek out from behind the glass of the spectacles that rest on his nose. 

"And? Most relationships start with friendship" Richard prods as he sits up slightly against the headboard. He's deliberately trying to get Seth riled up- that's the only explanation Seth can come up with. 

"What do you want me to say? You want me to say I've been crazy about her for nearly a year now? Well there I've said it, now can you just drop it?" Seth grimaces as he turns away with the ridiculous pile of ties bunched in his hand. He walks over to his desk that rest underneath the floor length window and almost throws them onto the wooden surface. 

"I'm just saying that you need to be careful, Seth. Maybe Kate will get hurt if you're not honest with her from the start" Richard muses "you need to tell her about Vanessa and about you being in _fucking prison_ before you jump into anything with her" 

"Jump into anything with her? We're _faking_ a relationship, not suddenly jumping into one. It's _pretend_. You know like how you used to pretend you were actually cool in middle school? Yeah like that" Seth bites back sarcastically, his back and arms stiffening as he stands up straighter "and Kate doesn't need to know anything about me because it doesn't matter" 

"Doesn't matter? Seth have you seen the way she looks at you? She fucking _loves_ you and you have no clue" Richard stands up- suddenly getting defensive. Of course he does, he cares about Kate as much as Seth does "that girl is like a sister to me. I love her. And I don't want her to get hurt. You need to wake up and realise how much the both of you are meant for each other, but you need to own up to your past before that happens" 

"Richard, stop worrying, alright? Nothing is going to happen" Seth reassures him "we'll pretend for a while, and then everything will go back to normal. Kate doesn't need to know anything because she deserves better than me, alright?" 

Richard doesn't look convinced after Seth voices his words aloud and all Seth feels is tired and wasted. He begins to wonder then just who he was trying to convince. Because his words do nothing to soothe his own worries. 


	4. Chapter 4

Bethel was exactly how Seth had pictured it. Quaint and small with just the right amount of vulgarly obtrusive Texan morality. There seemed to be signs for youth groups and church services pinned to posts on almost every street corner Seth drove by. On the sidewalks women wore sundresses and hats with ridiculous bows and there didn't seem to be a lingering delinquent anywhere- only charitable looking teens that stood on the pavement holding plastic buckets to collect for the church roof. 

_Why in every goddamn small town did they collect for the church roof?_

It all felt oddly dystopian somehow- like he was inside a vanilla style fifties sitcom with permanent quietness and clean air. It was a far cry from the bustling din of Houston and the stench of alcohol that permeated from Jed's most of the time. Here Seth would be surprised if the bars stayed open past seven. 

"You alright?" Seth asks as he lets his eyes tear from the road and to Kate. She'd been quiet for most of the car ride here- only really talking when she had to but that was okay because Seth filled up the silence with Elvis Presley on the radio and funny recollections from his and Richie's childhood. Kate had watched him intently as he spoke but he could tell she hadn't really been _listening_\- too far away in her own thoughts to really pay attention. 

"Yeah" she answers him too quickly, and Seth raises an eyebrow at her as he glances towards her out of the corner of his eye. 

"Kate, you need to tell me what's going on" Seth tells her softly "the whole point of this is to make everyone think we're this amazing couple. If you look miserable with me then people ain't gonna believe it, sweetheart" 

She chuckles darkly as she tucks her hair behind her ear, her eyes cast towards her jean clad knees and then she's staring at him as he drives- green eyes studying his shadowed face that is now turned away from her to focus on the road. 

"I haven't been home in nearly a year" Kate begins, leaning an elbow against the door "last time I was here I was packing my stuff and leaving to teach in Houston. I'd wanted to leave for a while you know, just Kyle never wanted to and I guess when he cheated on me I had an excuse to run. I just got on a bus and didn't come home, not for Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything. Daddy came to visit me a couple times, but every time he came I could tell he was drunk. So Scott and I paid for rehab and he's only after getting out two months ago"

"You never told me that" Seth turns his face towards her- eyes momentarily dedicating her expression to memory before turning back to the road. Her pretty face is crest fallen and somewhat tired. He can tell that being back in a place she hasn't called home in a while is restless and laced with the idea of impending doom. 

"I just wanted someone to see me as, Kate. And not the girl who's father is an alcoholic, you know? I felt like pretending I was okay made everything seem better but it never went away" she sighs loudly "I sound stupid, I know" 

"You don't" Seth huffs out shakily. He knows more than anyone how to pretend that certain parts of your life don't exist to seem worthy in someone else's eyes. 

"He's been doing well but I just couldn't bring myself to come back here. I just think if I visited him more that it wouldn't have been so bad, you know? But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Does that make me a horribly selfish person?" she asks him quietly, her green eyes trained on his face. 

"Kate, you're one of the best people I know. You're not selfish at all, alright? You tried to help your Dad and that does not make you a horrible person" Seth tells her with that look of solicitous effort on his handsome face. 

"You mean that? I'm one of the best people you know?" she asks him, her voice lighter this time and a genuine looking half smile on her pretty lips. He tears his eyes from the road and lets them land on her mouth for a split second, and then he looks away again. 

"Yeah, I mean that, princess" he coughs out awkwardly, suddenly feeling pretty damn hot under the collar of his black dress shirt. 

"Are you going soft on me, Gecko?" Kate asks him as she playfully prods the tattoo on his neck. He absently leans into her touch but then pulls away ever so nonchalantly a second later, his hands gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. 

"Don't tell anyone, alright? I've a reputation to uphold" Seth smirks slyly at her and she just rolls her eyes in return. He can see that despite her playfulness she still holds a deep set worry in her jade eyes, and he takes a breath before speaking again. 

"My old man was a drunk too" he tells her levelly but keeps his eyes on Bethel's passing streets out the windshield. Her head too is turned towards the window. 

"Huh?" Kate questions as she returns her focus to Seth- those soft eyes targeting his face. 

"My dad, he uh.....he drank a lot when Richie and I were kids. Mom split after Richie was born so Dad drank more and more, blamed us for everything of course and not the fact that he was a shitty husband and a useless father. Used to kick us around a lot, me especially since I had a mouth on me" his voice is tight with all the contained memories he's desperately tried to bury "uh what I'm trying to say is.....I get it, Kate. I know life is shit sometimes, and I understand" 

Kate knows it's not easy for a man like Seth to talk openly about things- he's rough around the edges and guarded with his emotions, and she can tell he doesn't let people in so easily. She knows Richard is probably the closest person to him, and somehow along the way Kate herself has wiggled into the circle of his trust. She can't quite remember how it had happened- just that he had trusted her enough to be close to her without the normal set of smothering antics that came with friendship. 

"That's awful, Seth. I'm sorry" Kate's tone is genuine as she speaks- some sort of broken hurt lacing its way inside her words. Her skin is soft and warm as her hand comes to rest on his rougher one that he absently has laid atop the gear shift.

Her fleeting yet considerate touch is gone after she squeezes his hand lightly and something deep within himself that is tactile and always seeking comfort aches when she does. But he doesn't let it show and slowly lets his hand return to the steering wheel. 

"At least your dad invited us here. Mending fences and all that, you know?" he tries to change the mood- burying Ray Gecko down deep in the dusty cemetery that is his mind and resurrecting Jacob Fuller.

He thinks, despite the preachers flaws, that he seems like a better father than his own raging alcoholic one had been. From what he's garnered from Kate he can guess that the holy man had lost his touch after the tragic passing of his wife. Rightly so, Seth thinks, trauma can do shit to a person. Seth's own father had just been an abusive scumbag who had reminded Seth he was worthless every chance he got. He doubts Kate's father had ever told his green eyed girl that. 

"I was pretty surprised he'd offered us to stay with him before we left for the wedding" Kate admits to him "but he seemed excited to meet you. I have to warn you though, I have talked about you to him before. Before all of this fake date stuff" 

"Really, princess?" Seth asks with a raise of an eyebrow, stopping the car at the lights that stand prominently beside an old looking movie theatre "and what pray tell, have you told him?" 

"I may have mentioned you a couple times. He was worried when I moved to Houston that I wouldn't have many friends because as he says _I throw myself into my work_" Kate air quotes with her fingers "but I told him about you, and Richie and Kisa. I told him you all made me feel pretty welcome. He.... um.....never mind" 

"Kate" Seth warns gently, eyeing her before the light turns green and he moves on "tell me" 

"He doesn't know what age you are. It might come as a surprise" her cheeks are blushing slightly and her plump bottom lip is tugged between her teeth. 

"Thirty three isn't that old, Kate" he finds himself laughing a little as he shakes his head, but Kate doesn't join in with the melodic chuckle that reverberates off the inside of the car. She just eyes him curiously from her seat. 

"I'm a preachers daughter, Seth. I always hung out with the kids my own age and tutored the younger ones. If I was a junior the seniors were off limits to be friends with. I don't know if my Daddy would appreciate his twenty four year old daughter hanging around with such an old man" she teases, now adding her addition to the laughter. 

"You wound me, Kate" Seth sighs dramatically as he runs a hand through his thick hair "maybe I should've gotten rid of these grey hairs before I came here" 

"Don't" Kate looks at him honestly then, her lips upturned into a smile "I like them" 

* * *

"Cute" Seth comments as he pulls into the driveway of the Fullers residence- his eyes studying the pleasant looking yellow house from the windscreen. There's a white picket fence with a letter box surrounding the ivy green garden that hosts an array of colourful flowers and Seth has to fight the urge to laugh. Not in a condescending way, but in a way that would outwardly express his humour at being dragged into a town straight from a Hallmark movie. 

"Home sweet home" Kate remarks dryly as she unbuckles herself.

As soon as Seth steps from the car the door of the house opens and out steps who Seth can only assume to be Mr Fuller. He's grey haired and has a face with lines that not only tell of his age but his hardship, but his whole visage seems to light up when he sees Kate. He ambles towards her down the cobbled driveway with glittering eyes and open arms. 

"Oh my Katie Cakes. I missed you" he hugs her tightly to him and Kate eyes Seth from over his shoulder. 

_Katie Cakes?_, he mouths with a sly grin._ Shut up_, she mouths back with an eye roll. 

"I missed you too, Daddy" Kate tells him with a smile, those sparkly green eyes of hers twinkling with a sheen that looks oddly like tears. But any trace of sadness is quickly dissipated when she pulls away from her father and turns to Seth. 

"Daddy, this is Seth" Kate tells him a little shyly, a pink blush extending across her face.

Seth jumps to the ready with an outstretched hand and the most friendly smile he can muster up on his face. He can see the way Mr Fuller eyes him beadily through piercing blue eyes- eyeing the scruff on his face and the dark flames that snake their way out of his collar. Seth's heart is pounding in his chest rapidly as he shakes the preachers hand, as if God himself is staring at him through Jacob's eyes. 

He knows this is pretend, but he wants to impress Kate's father. Somehow he feels like his approval needs to be real.

"The famous Seth, heard a lot about you, son" he says with a crackling Southern accent "nice to finally meet you" 

"You too, Mr Fuller, sir" Seth lets his hand drop back to his side and silently berates himself in his own head at the fact he almost sounds like some sniffling teenager waiting on Kate's doorstep to take her to the movies.

"Call me Jacob, no formalities here, son" Jacob takes a step closer to him and slaps him gently on the shoulder to steer him towards the house "now how about we go inside?"

Kate's house is as cheerful looking inside as it is on the outside, full of warm looking wood and family photos on the wall and a big cushy couch in the heart of the living room. It looks exactly like the house Seth had pictured Kate growing up in, and when his eyes land on a small wooden cross hung proudly on the wall he knows his speculation had been correct. 

"You guys want some coffee? I was just about to make some for myself" Jacob asks them as he wanders further into the house to the kitchen. Seth tears his eyes away from a picture of Kate in a graduation cap and gown- her beautiful face beaming wide- and over his shoulder to the preacher. 

"That would be great, sir. Thank you" 

"You don't have to call him sir, Seth. You can call him Jacob, he told you so" Kate laughs a little as she comes to stand beside him- her eyes trying to avoid the mirage of pictures that are displayed within the living room.

Seth looks at her then and sees some flicker of pain on her face, as if being here surrounded by happy memories trapped behind glass is too much for her. He just looks down at her from his height advantage and into her doe looking eyes, the sweet vanilla of her perfume permeating his senses, and he tries, _tries_ not to lean closer to her but he fails miserably. 

"I'm slightly nervous" Seth admits to her in a hushed voice "I've never done this before....the whole meeting a girls father" 

"What? You've never done the whole_ I'll have your daughter home by eleven_ thing?" Kate giggles slightly as he shakes his head. 

It wasn't that Seth had ever suffered in the department of swooning women, but he had never been that serious with one before to get to the stage of meeting their family. He had married Vanessa sure, but her parents were dead.

This, despite the fact it is all an aid in creating this pretend story, would be the first. Kate is the first girl in his life to take him home with her. 

"Never" he tells her, watching as she gently pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and stares into his face like she's trying to read him. The soft auburn hairs around her face blow slightly with his breath and he finds he's transfixed on them. 

"At least this can be practice for you" Kate tells him with an undeniable trickle of sadness in her eyes but they spark with an intense surprise when he reaches a hand out and tucks the blow away tendrils of hair behind her ear. Whatever words were about to fall from his parted mouth are interrupted by a shuffle at the door. 

"Gross, dude" 

"Scott!" Kate scolds as she whips away from Seth with a jump, her eyes trained on the guarded figure by the door. He makes his way into the living room with a stalking tread of his feet and eyes Seth narrowly from sceptical eyes. 

"I'm Scott. Kate's brother" he informs Seth but doesn't unfold his arms for a handshake. He can't be anymore than twenty two and suddenly Seth feels ancient compared to the two Fuller siblings. 

"Seth Gecko" Seth tells him, and despite the kid's frigidness he extends a hand to him. Scott takes it with a look of approval, as if he was waiting for Seth to take the first step. 

"Like the lizard? That's sick, dude" Scott tells him, shaking his hand and then his eyes fall on his sister "you find this guy in the yellow pages, Kate? No way this guy is dating a stickler like you" 

"I could make out with your sister right now and prove it" Seth quips back playfully, a huge arm snaking around Kate's hips to pull her closer.

She stiffens slightly but when she feels Seth's fingers grip her waist she can't help but lean against him. Kate wonders if Seth can tell her heart is beating rapidly at his words and at the thought of how much she'd like to kiss Seth stupidly in the middle of her living room like a teenager. 

"I think I'll pass on that display of affection, thanks" Scott screws up his face and Kate can't help but laugh at him, pushing into his chest playfully after she slips away from Seth's arms. 

"Who's the stickler now, huh?" 

* * *

Kate's family, as broken as they may be over the events of the last couple of years, are exactly the type of family that radiates warmth and comfort. Seth can see that Jacob idolises both kids in the way he looks at them with that gentle sort of paternal love that Seth himself had never gotten from his own father. Their family is comprised of their faith and is even defined by how they still stick together in spite of death and alcoholism. 

Seth's own family unit had been comprised of scores, bloody knuckles and the difficult task of putting a gun back together while a timer ticked by his ear. Even when Uncle Eddie had taken them in he had shown his love in the way he'd pushed both Seth and Richie to be meticulous in their crimes. In the end Seth hadn't been too meticulous and had gotten thrown in jail. Eddie had shown his love then by clocking Seth a hard one in the jaw and screaming at him that he was an idiot while tears had brimmed in his eyes. 

Both Kate's brother and father had somehow made Seth feel welcome even though he had imagined the evening going terribly wrong somehow and that both would end up despising him.

But Jacob had been a perfect host and no trace of the God forsaken man that he had been just a couple months ago made an appearance. Scott had been a little teasing with his comments but it was all in good humour and he and Kate had a bantering relationship that reminded him of the one he had with his own brother. 

The evening had gone well and Seth had liked the domesticity he had fallen into with Kate as they'd both ambled around the kitchen making the dinner. Jacob had tried to help but Kate had insisted she could handle pasta and Seth had offered his assistance.

_I was raised by an Italian_, he had said and Kate had smiled at him like he was Jesus Christ himself as he began chopping tomatoes. 

He has to keep reminding himself that this isn't real, and that no matter how many times Jacob refers to him as Kate's _boyfriend_, he really isn't.

He looks at Kate now from where he stands stirring the thick red sauce that sits inside a copper saucepan and can't help the smile that twitches on his face as she bustles around making a salad. He likes her in moments like these when she's completely unaware how beautiful she is. He tries to ignore how Scott eyes him studiously from where he sits perched on a stool. 

An incessant ringing breaks through the comfortable silence in the kitchen and Seth whips his phone out of his pocket. He has to refrain from rolling his eyes when he eyes the number, and nearly crushes the damn phone in his fist as he clenches it. He drops the wooden spoon against the pot and takes a step towards the door that leads to the Fullers back garden. 

"Hey, baby, I gotta take this" Seth hurriedly rushes out, his heart beat picking up as the ringing of his phone gets louder. He doesn't even have time to see Kate's blushing face at being called _baby_, as he rushes out the door.

Outside the heady atmosphere is tangible with heat even though the cloak of evening is settling itself in the sky. He marches towards a tree at the back of the garden that gives him enough shelter from prying eyes, and he finds his own eyes snap back and forth to the house. He can see Kate from the large French windows, laughing about something Scott just said. 

"What, Vanessa?" he snaps out as he holds the phone up "now isn't a good time" 

"When is it ever a good time, Seth?" her drawl crackles in his ear and he pinches the bridge of his nose to stop the frustrated groan from leaving his mouth the way it wants to. 

"Vanessa, I've told you already you'll get your damn money.....I just need more time, alright?" Seth grits out, eyes intent on watching Kate from where he stands leaned against the tree. 

"How do I know you're not just gonna double shuffle me like old times, huh?" Vanessa asks him with that familiar bite in her voice. 

"The only reason I'm doing this is because we're still married, alright? You'll get your fucking money and then that's it, you hear me? I want a divorce" Seth cuts at her, feeling his fist clench tightly as it swings beside his hip.

He had really thought he'd loved her once, but he'd only really loved the illusion he had thought her to be. They'd lived in a lust fuelled state for nearly a month but it had fallen apart pretty quickly when Seth was high all the time and unable to put down scores and gain the money Vanessa wanted. 

"Seth, baby, you don't need to be like this. Admit there's a part of you that wants me still" she purrs softly but he just shakes his head to himself. 

"No, I don't" he tells her, his eyes resting on the curved frame of the preachers daughter who he can see bustle around collecting plates in her arms from the window. 

"We could have been good together" she tells him with a sense of forlornness in her voice, but Seth wonders if she's reminiscing about their short lived love affair or the cash Seth had been good at stealing for her. 

"We were together. It wasn't good" Seth's voice is hard as his words burst whatever picture Vanessa had been idealistically crafting in her head. 

"You sweet on someone else, is that it?" Vanessa asks him and he quickly tears his eyes away from the small house and to his feet. 

"No, and that's none of your business anyway" 

"None of your _wife's_ business? Tell that to the marriage license, Seth. Maybe I'll come down there and see for myself what little honey you've shacked up with" her words grate at him harshly and he has to stop himself from punching the tree. 

"Don't be ridiculous, there's no need for you to come here. I'll get the money for you. Just give me a week" Seth tells her and before she has a moment to speak again he cuts the call off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone! hope you're enjoying the story so far. Quick question....is there anything you would like to see included in this fic ie fluffy moments or just things in general that I can add etc just let me know


	5. Chapter 5

“Everything, okay?” Kate asks Seth as soon as he remerges into the house from the backdoor. 

He lets his eyes tear from his cell and to her concerned looking face, highly aware that she’s not the only one who eyes him sceptically. He can feel the preacher’s eyes boring into him with a heavy intention and he tries to shake the annoyed looking expression he is most certainly wearing on his face. 

“Yeah, everything’s fine. It was just Richie, there was some sort of mix up with the staff rota that he wanted me to fix” Seth lies, hating how easily he can do it. Of course he can be deceitful, it was almost second nature to a criminal. _Former_ criminal, he berates himself inside his head. Suddenly he can feel the stare of the wooden cross behind his back puncturing into him with a religious condemnation. 

Kate smiles at him with a satisfied look and eyes that are gazing at him happily; content that he’s not miffed over something worth delving into. He just gives her a tight smile back and watches as she makes to stroll from the kitchen with a bowl of fresh salad in her arms. 

“Dinner is ready in the dining room” she informs him softly, and as soon as she’s gone he lets out a heavy sigh; full of relief and pure unadulterated guilt. 

_Fuck_, he was a shitty son of a bitch for hiding all of this, and some mad spark inside himself demands for him to blurt out the truth. _Hey Kate, I was an ex con and married a selfish gold digger who now wants to clean me out, and I’m head over heels in love with you. Oh, how could I forget? I spent five years in the clink for attempted armed robbery. _

Yeah, like that would go over well. 

“You alright, son? You look put out over something” the old man’s voice nearly makes Seth jump where he stands and all thoughts within his head are wiped clean like a rag getting rid of dirt as he finds those plagued blue eyes boring into his. 

“I’m alright. It’s just a work thing” Seth says tightly, shoving his cell back into his jean pocket. 

“Kate tells me you own a bar, that right?” Jacob asks him, his weathered hands clutching the edge of the kitchen counter. Seth thinks that perhaps even the slightest memory of an alcoholic establishment is enough to tempt Jacob’s demons, but Seth nods and tries not to dwell on it. 

“Yes, sir. Me and my brother own it. He’s heading off this weekend to scout a new location, we’re thinking of expanding. Opening up a chain across the state” Seth explains to him, folding his arms across his chest to distract his fidgeting movements. 

There’s something deeply unsettling about Kate’s father. He’s been perfectly hospitable all evening; full of polite conversation and easy smiles but it’s almost like he can see through Seth’s nervousness and sense exactly what it stems from. But perhaps it’s Seth’s own desire to impress an image of himself onto these people that causes an unnerved feeling to rise inside himself. He looks down at the speckled countertop and away from the God fearing man. 

“It’s nice to see you work with family, you have any other siblings? Your parents work with you?” Jacob probes lightly. 

“No, sir. No other siblings, just me and Richard. And uh, both my parents are gone” Seth swallows; the word _dead_ doesn’t seem to fit since he has no idea if his mother is alive or not “our Uncle took us in, and raised us. He taught us everything about the business. Of running a bar that is” 

Seth feels slightly hot under his collar, and coughs, feeling like his suddenly dry mouth needs a glass of water. He can only imagine what the earnestly religious man would think of him if he really knew what Uncle Eddie had taught him. Like how to hotwire a getaway car, reload a gun in under thirty seconds and smooth talk like a professional. 

“You know, son, you seem like an ambitious man. Good head on your shoulders, and all that. I can see why my Katie Cakes likes you so much” Jacob lets a half smile form on his face “I can see it in the way she looks at you. Her Mama used to look at me like that” 

Seth isn’t sure whether to feel delighted or felonious with the fact that Kate looks at him in any sort of way for her father to pick up on. Suddenly there’s a lump in his throat that he tries to swallow and when he does it tastes an awful lot like remorse.

“I really like her too” Seth says without deceit, his words truthful. A half truth, Seth thinks. He doesn’t just _like_ Kate. He adores her. Worships her. All those cheesy adjectives that stem from loving someone completely. 

“I just want you to know that she’s not as tough as she makes herself out to be. She cares way too much for people and doesn’t stop to look after herself. She’s been through a lot and doesn’t open up too much, and maybe she should” Jacob’s voice gets lower now with caution, and his eyes flicker behind Seth’s shoulder towards the dining room “I’m just saying this so you know that she’s been broken way too many times, and I’m trusting you not to hurt my little girl, she doesn’t need any more heart ache” 

“I won’t hurt her” Seth tells the preacher, feeling that culpable lump in his throat form yet again. 

* * *

Of all the surreal circumstances Seth has found himself in over the years (like being held up at gunpoint by criminal gang members, cracking bank safes with Richie, and let’s not forget the most amusingly unconventional situation which was his ass being hauled to jail) he has to admit that standing in Kate Fuller’s childhood bedroom is definitely high on the list. 

It is like he is standing in some frozen morbid museum that hosts multiple trophies and medals and photographs of a young Kate that beams at him with the most genuine smiles from where they rest pinned to the walls and on the dresser beside her bed. It is all very well organised and _pink_, and Seth knows he looks stark in comparison to the fuschia walls and array of stuffed animals that sit against the ivory bed sheets. 

He eyes the bed like it’s some beacon of danger, and nearly gulps when imagining himself lying in it with Kate. He can hear the shower running from her ensuite and her soft melodic humming that is carrying itself to him, and despite his nervousness he can’t really help but be thankful that Scott turned the guest room into a studio. 

Kate had practically turned as pink as her walls when her father had announced that piece of information. 

Seth smiles to himself when he reaches out a hand to pick up a framed photograph that rests beside Kate’s bed; one of her wearing pigtails and a wild smile with a missing front tooth. Kneeling beside her is a dark haired woman with an equally big smile on her face and eyes that remind him of Kate’s.

He doesn’t hear Kate’s footsteps quietly come up from behind him, but he nearly jumps when he feels her shift up against his side. He hadn’t even heard the shower turn off; too intent while looking at photographs of the happy looking girl. 

He tries not to become intoxicated from the vanilla scent coming off her skin or how her slightly damp hair tickles the tops of her breasts from where they are framed by her camisole. He nearly feels his throat close when he sees she’s wearing sleep shorts.

The thought of sleeping on the floor well away from her seems so desirable in that moment. 

“That was my first day in first grade. I’d just lost my tooth the night before and thought it was the best thing ever” Kate comments with a sad smile “and that’s my Mama” 

Seth can hear how her voice breaks at the end, her resolve beginning to crumble as she stares at the photograph. He knows everything that had happened to her mother, and how much pain Kate felt everytime she thought of her. 

He had carried her up to her apartment from his car one night after she had gotten stupidly drunk at Jed’s. She had displayed all the normal drunken antics that people adopted when inebriated; like giggling non stop and finding everything that Seth said during the ride home hilarious, and the clumsiness she had shown was a danger hazard. That's why Seth had scooped her up in his arms and carried her like a child- the action bringing on another round of giggles. 

But when he’d gently placed her in her bed she had started to breathe heavily and cry the kind of tears that would pull at anyone's heartstrings. Well they’d pulled at Seth’s anyway. 

She had told him how her mother would have been fifty six that day, how she missed wishing her a happy birthday and giving her a card that her Mama always kept in a small box along with all the others Kate had given her throughout the years. She told him about the depression, how it had gripped her and how her Daddy had looked at the sky and prayed to an invisible man for help. 

How there’d been an accident that hadn’t really been unintended after all, and how her Daddy had gone back and forth to the bottle, deviating from the faith that couldn’t save his wife. 

She’d cried and she’d cried, the alcohol in her veins making her mouth less constricted and her pain less caged. Seth had held her close to him and had let her get his white shirt dirty with all the black makeup that trailed from her eyes, and when she was finished he washed it off of her and laid her down. 

That night he had slept in the uncomfortable chair that rested beside her bed, and if Kate remembered anything when she woke up, she never let him know. 

“You look like her” Seth turns his head to look at her, watching as she smiles slightly forlorn. 

“Sometimes I think I can see her in me, you know? Other days I can’t even remember what she looked like until I see a photo” Kate tries to shrug nonchalantly to hide the rising heartache in her chest, and then she flicks a finger at the picture “and I try not to look at them too often because I was a hideous looking child” 

She grumbles at the image, eyeing her younger self with a slight discontent on her face. 

“You were cute” Seth chuckles to himself, eyeing the photograph one last time before placing it back down in its resting spot “seems like you had a pretty good childhood here” 

“Yeah, I did” Kate watches him with folded arms as he fingers a track medal that hangs on the wall “Bethel is the kind of place where everyone knows everything about you, but it was home for so long. I enjoyed school here, had lots of friends. I can’t complain too much about my childhood” 

“You were a cheerleader?” Seth raises an eyebrow at her when he spots a team photograph hanging on the wall, and Kate blushes as she scurries over to see why he’s so amused. 

The picture had been taken for her junior yearbook and she’d been proud of it then, but now that she has a man like _Seth_ ogling it with the highest form of amusement she can’t help but feel embarrassed. She looks so young and hopeful in that photo, with hands on her hips and a smile on her face like she was ready to conquer the world but little did she know everything would change before she even entered her senior year. 

Little did she know her Mama would die and her father would enter a downward spiral that would last almost six years. 

“For a little while” Kate mumbles to him, trying not to remember how she had been kicked off the squad for absenteeism despite her circumstances. She can still remember Jessica’s snarky quips at her while banishing her from the team, even though Kate had thought she had been her friend. 

Her hands begin fidgeting and she chooses to busy them by closing over her curtains but she stops herself short. Her eyes go straight to the horrendous looking vehicle that is parked at the side of the house, a visible frown colouring her face. She can feel Seth’s warmth cloak her as he steps up beside her, choosing to join in her spectacle of looking at the Winnebago. 

“Where on earth did my dad find that thing?” she comments distastefully “it looks ancient” 

“At least we don’t have to travel in it” Seth adds with a smile that Kate returns as she shuts the curtains closed. She could be grateful at least that she had tomorrow's drive alone with Seth in his car instead of being hauled inside that thing with her Dad who would be sleeping in it for the duration of the wedding. She feels a slight guilty twinge in her stomach for Scott. 

“Thank God for that” she mumbles as she walks over to the bed, determined with the task of getting rid of the stuffed animals off it and into a neat pile in the corner of her room “he likes you, you know. My dad. He told me so earlier when you and Scott were talking, thought I’d let you know”

“He seems like a good man” Seth nods truthfully, folding his arms against his chest and leaning against her dresser “you should know he pulled me aside earlier and gave me the whole speech about not breaking your heart. He looks out for you, you know. I think he’s afraid I’m secretly a terrible person” 

“Must be the tattoo” Kate smirks as she eyes his bare arms and the flames that snake their way up to his neck like winding tendrils “and you’re not a terrible person, Seth. He gave the same speech to Kyle when I brought him home. Guess the message didn’t really sink in” 

“Hm, guess not” Seth mumbles to himself, trying not to dwell on the fact he really was terrible “I’m looking forward to meeting this little weasel, if I’m being honest. You got a picture of him here?” 

“Why? You want to memorise his face so you can rough him up when you see him?” Kate chuckles with a smile as she sits down on the bed. Seth’s handsome face up turns into a dark grin that seems to spread all the way to his glinting eyes. 

“Maybe” Seth remarks darkly, eyes intent on her “sounds to me like he’s the sort of punk that needs to get banked on” 

“Trust me, I think the vase I threw at him did the job” Kate informs him with a smirk, shuffling on the bed when he gazes at her with a surprised expression. 

“You threw a vase at him?” Seth questions, his face raising in sudden interest and she nods with a jut of her chin. 

“Yes, I did, and I do not regret it one bit” she declares steadily with a wicked sort of smile he’s never seen on her face before, but one that excites him “it hit him right on the head. That and the ring I threw at him. I was very proud of myself” 

“That’s my girl” Seth proudly exclaims; his mind trying to conjure up the image of what Kate is describing and finds he delights at the thought of her throwing items at a currently faceless man who Seth does not know yet. She blushes pink, and tucks her hair behind her ear and tries to look anywhere but him. 

“You want to sleep now? We have a ten hour drive tomorrow” Kate offers with a sheepish look on her face, the expression making her look as young as she is in those damn cheerleading photos. Seth suddenly feels like he’s intruding on something he has no right to be a part of, like he can’t fathom being here with her in her old room and defiling it all with his presence. 

“I’ll sleep on the floor, Kate” the words leave his mouth levelly and with no desire in them to actually carry out the act. But he knows he has to. 

“Come on, Seth, don’t be ridiculous. The bed is big enough for both of us” she explains to him, standing up and throwing back the covers “and besides where would my southern hospitality be if I let you sleep on the floor?” 

He’s a weak man. That’s the only plausible explanation he can come up with as he finds his feet moving towards her bed, and how can he not? Not when she’s sitting in the middle of it with her hand beckoning him forward, and a too innocent smile on her face. God if only she knew the sinful acts he wanted to commit with her right here in her childhood room. Surely she’d run straight to the confessional stand in her Daddy’s beloved church. 

The air in the room shifts almost instantaneously as soon as he slides himself under the covers with her- the heat in the small bed almost as hot as the Mexican desert. He can feel her arm touching his as she lies on her back after turning out the lamp, and both their breathing becomes heavy and both their hearts begin tremoring. Seth is sure he can hear his own thumping loudly if he concentrates enough. 

He can feel something like electricity spark its way through his veins like a drug and suddenly his hands and arms are aching to touch her. He grits his teeth together and clenches his fists but that small, wicked voice inside of him that has always pushed him to do criminal offences now whispers to him nefariously. _Touch her. Touch her. Touch her. Just reach out and hold her like you want to. She’s right fucking there._

“It’s inevitable, you know” Kate’s voice rings throughout the dark, and Seth is so grateful there is something louder than the taunting demands in his head. He dares to turn his head and finds that she’s lying on her side, looking at him with those pretty green eyes. 

“What is, princess?” his voice is gone husky and strained, and his tongue feels heavy and dry in his mouth. 

“The whole breaking my heart thing” she whispers to him, and Seth can’t really tell if she’s blushing since it’s so dark “it has to happen” 

He doesn’t really trust himself to speak now, because her words are clawing their way inside his mind and twisting something cold within himself. He thinks of Jacob’s words from earlier- _I can see it in the way she looks at you_\- and feels his heart plummet. Kate looks at him now with eyes that seem like they want to look at nothing else, and she’s angled way too close to him in a comfortableness that stifles him. 

He thinks of the pounding muscle in her chest and hates the thought of ever breaking it. 

“You know, we have to break up after this wedding, and I’ll need a cover story. We can just say we decided to break up, and stay friends” Kate explains, and Seth begins to calm down, turning on his side to face her “I hate lying to my dad, and to Scott, but what they don't know won’t hurt them, right?” 

“Yeah, sure, princess” he all but whispers to her, a warm feeling spreading over him when she smiles sleepily and snuggles into her pillows. 

“Night, Seth” she yawns gently, her eyes closing peacefully. 

“Night, Kate” he tells her, but for hours sleep evades him and he stares at the moonlit ceiling instead, overly thinking about this whole situation he has become a part of . 

He feels like he won’t get any sleep at all when it’s been three hours already and his eyes are still glued in the one spot. 

But when Kate mumbles his name dreamily in her sleep and clutches herself to him, arms wrapping around his waist and her face pressed to his chest, he finds that sleep comes to him easier than it ever has. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I'm heading back to work tomorrow which really sucks because I'm just not ready to get back to teaching four year olds after the wonderful holiday break! but updates might be slower than usual so I apologise in advance, it's not that I'm losing interest it's probably because I'm filling in learning journals for my class and planning a curriculum for the month (what fun)  
Anyway, as always I hoped you liked the update. Feedback is always appreciated  
Taylor xx


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took forever and I had so many ideas for this chapter but it was getting too long so they'll have to wait for the next one.

It takes them twelve hours and eight minutes to get to Tennessee from Bethel. 

The road hadn’t been too monotonous since Kate had Seth to keep her company with his loud singing and deep laughter whenever he recalled a memory that he decided to voice aloud to the world. Kate in turn kept the silence to a minimum by delving into details about her relatives that Seth would soon meet (pre warning him to be careful with her Aunt Nancy. She was a widow, and a cougar) and thoroughly she had enjoyed his companionship immensely. 

It was nice to just be in his company, and watching him while he focused on the road and talked and smiled that eye creasing smile had made her sigh dreamily like a damn teenager. Honestly, if she could just spend the rest of her life with him in confined spaces she would thank God and be happy. 

She had been blushing way too much today. She could tell by the way her cheeks kept becoming sporadically heated during moments when his eyes locked with hers for too long. Just like they had from across the booth in the diner they had stopped at along the way. And when he had refused her money and got up to pay for them it rang an awful lot like a date. 

But Kate knew it hadn’t been, and that had hurt her deep down in the place where she tried to bury her unrequited affections. 

She wondered then as she climbed back in the car with him, how on earth was she going to survive this wedding without any bumps or scrapes. She was in way over her head, and her feelings for Seth were rapidly washing over her like a tidal wave; threatening to drag her down and drown her. 

The thought of being back in Houston, being in her tiny apartment and going back to work seemed dreary and dull compared to the rush life was giving her right now. How could she return to the routine of everyday existence and pretend like she didn’t love him? She knew the closer they got to Tennessee, the deeper she was delving into a pit she wouldn’t be able to climb out of. 

“Looks like we’re here, princess” Seth says from the driver's seat as he eyes the car’s navigator, and Kate feels oddly dizzy at how quickly she’s just been pulled from her existential state of mind; all thoughts of Seth and the dilemma of her feelings being quickly buried when she looks out her window. 

She hasn’t spent a summer here since she was seventeen, but the house that rests down the gravel driveway is just as grand and vulgarly Southern as she remembers. It beams down at them with vivid white walls and a large red door that is enclosed by a massive porch that wraps the whole way around the house. Ten windows; five upstairs and five downstairs gleam in the sunlight and Seth lets out a whistle when he spots the lake in the background. 

A hundred different memories hit Kate all at once as the car slows to a near stop. 

Her and Darla swimming in the lake and splashing each other until their arms and legs grew tired. Drinking iced tea with her Aunt Nancy and Mama on the front porch, not understanding the things they used to expressively gossip about when she was younger, and she can’t remember the topics now; the memories a million miles away. They used to play grand games of hide and seek and Kate nearly smiles when she remembers looking for Scott for over three hours and finding him tucked into the loft of the barn. He had always won those kind of games. 

Seth pulls the car beside her Daddy’s RV that rests under the shade of a large oak tree, and Kate can’t help but notice about four other cars are parked up. Kate knows that a few of her relatives are also staying in the large farmhouses many guest bedrooms, but her stomach does a flip when she wonders if any of those cars belongs to Kyle. 

Seth shuts the car off with a sigh, large body heaving back in the seat and eyeing Kate with a cautious look. She’s overly nervous and part of her wants to reverse all the way back to Houston, but Seth looks like he too is having a crisis. 

She’s the one who dragged him into unknown territory with people he’s never met before, and is expecting him to be an actor worthy of George Clooney’s level of talent for the next few days. But they’re here now, and no matter how much she wants it, there really is no turning back. 

“You ready, partner?” Seth asks her, carefully eyeing her sheepish expression, and then she nods with a half smile. 

“Yeah, I’m ready” she says as she removes her seatbelt and shuffles out of the too hot car. 

She hasn’t even stepped foot on the gravel when she hears an almighty shriek coming from the house that rests not ten metres away. Her green eyes snap towards the door, where a very enthusiastic redhead is now hurriedly running over with her arms spread wide. 

“Katie!” 

“Darla!” Kate exclaims with a laugh when her cousins arms wrap around her neck tightly, the sickly sweet whiff of her perfume hitting her nostrils. 

Everything about Darla was sickly sweet; from her lemon meringue sundress that has a bow at the back and her white patent pumps that click furiously against the gravel as she jumps in Kate’s arms. Even the smile she has on her face is plastered onto her with a well rehearsed fondness. 

Kate doesn’t doubt that her cousin loves her; of course she does. But all her life Darla had been an only child and her Daddy’s pride and joy. She had been fawned over wherever she went, especially here in her hometown since her Daddy had been the Mayor, had gotten everything she had wanted and had been spoilt to a tasteless degree. 

Where Kate had been taught to be humble and kind, Darla had been taught to be ruthless and to achieve everything within sight. For most of their childhood she had tried to be better than Kate at almost everything, and Kate knows despite how ridiculous it is, that Darla will always hold some sort of jealousy towards her even if she reiterates how she thinks of Kate like a sister. 

Darla was beautiful and well liked, and Kate was well...._Kate_. Shy and plain, and just a little boring. She had never saw a reason for Darla’s obsession with being better. 

“Oh I’ve missed you, Katie!” she drawls in her deep Southern accent and Kate doesn’t miss how her blue eyes jump over Kate’s shoulder to where Seth is leaned against the car “and who might this handsome gentleman be!” 

Another thing about Darla; she _isn’t_ shy. 

“This is Seth” Kate steps to the side and gestures towards him with a smile on her face; she can’t help it really when he stands there looking like _that_ in tight black jeans and tousled hair. He unfolds his arms then and steps up to take Darla’s outstretched hand. 

"Nice to meet you" Seth shakes her hand with a smile. The kind of smile that would knock you off your feet. 

“Mama told me you were bringing a friend” Darla eyes Seth almost greedily, and Kate can’t help the jealous glare she throws her cousins way. She can feel her cheeks burning with it when Darla giggles after letting Seth’s hand go. 

“He’s my boyfriend” Kate blurts out, feeling the Tennessee heat bearing down on her bare shoulders like the flames of Hell. If the bible was right and bearing false witness was a sin, well then she was certainly going to the fiery pits to be condemned for lying so much this week. 

She can feel Seth’s eyes on her and can almost _feel_ the smirk on his face, but she keeps her gaze focused on Darla who’s eyes now shift between Kate and Seth with a spark lighting in them. 

“Don’t you make a pretty pair?” Darla winks at Kate, not trying to hide the gesture from Seth whatsoever “an _unlikely_ pair, but pretty nonetheless” 

“Okay” Kate draws out, blushing to her roots and turning towards the car “we’re just going to put our bags inside. Will you show us what room we’re in?” 

“Oh no, honey. You’re not staying in the house like some common guest. You’re my _maid of honor_” Darla says as she skips towards Kate with a beam, linking her thin arm in the crook of Kate’s elbow. 

“Then where?” Kate asks with a furrowed brow, her eyes glancing at the magnificent white house and back to Darla’s excitable eyes. 

“You two get the lake house” 

* * *

The lake house rests on the curved bend of the winding dust road that branches off from the gravel driveway of the main house; it’s rustic front tucked behind an expanse of large trees that shelter the tiny white cottage from view. 

It isn’t even a five minute walk to get from the main house to the edge of the lake where Seth and Kate’s lodgings lie. But Darla is intent to let the stroll linger on and both women amble slowly ahead while Seth drags the luggage behind them.

Kate had offered to pull her tiny pink suitcase herself, but Seth had hushed her with an- _“I’ve got it, baby girl”-_ and a wink she knew was mostly for her cousins benefit. Kate couldn’t help the blush that had spread over her face, and even now as she treads beside Darla, her mind wanders back to the husky way he had said it and the _believable_ adoration in his voice. _Baby girl_. 

George Clooney, indeed. 

“Katie, just where did you find him?” Darla whispers but not quietly enough to instill confidence in Kate that Seth can’t hear them. He’s not two metres away but his eyes are cast towards the ground when Kate looks over her shoulder. 

“In a bar” Kate carefully says, feeling slightly uncomfortable and numb with how tight her cousin is linking her arm “that’s where we met”

“I’ve been to plenty of bars, I’ve never seen a man like _that_ hanging around in one” Darla giggles under her breath, and Kate can’t help but smile in agreement, a fresh flush colouring her face when she remembers the first time she had set eyes on him. She’s sure she had gawked at him for a full minute before even speaking. 

“Well he wasn’t _hanging around_, exactly, he owns the bar. I went with a friend for my birthday, and I was introduced to him” Kate tells her rather matter-of-factly but Darla looks unsatisfied and pouts to herself. Kate can only guess she had been hoping to hear some seedy or overly romantic story. But there is none. Only the truth which Kate is giving her, and she can let Darla fill in the blanks herself with her over imagination. 

“I knew you always had issues with your Daddy” Darla leans into Kate’s ear and whispers delicately “but I never knew you had Daddy issues” 

“Darla!” Kate is sure she’s as pink as the suitcase Seth is wheeling “he’s ten years older, alright? Not forty years older. And I don’t have issues, thank you very much” 

“Whatever you say, Katie Cakes” Darla grins as she lets Kate’s arm go, skipping towards the door of the house that has now been entirely revealed. 

_Don’t call me that,_ Kate hisses in her mind.

But any niggling feelings of frustration are ground out completely when she eyes the view before her.

The beating sun that is causing Kate’s temples to drip with a layer of sweat, is beaming down on top of the lake and making the ripples dance like diamonds. The calming lap of the water against the wooden dock is enough to dispel any disastrous thoughts, and Kate eyes the white lake house with a newfound love.

Thank god she’ll be away from her relatives down here. She can see the large house peeking through the trees from where it rests proudly in the distance. Yep, far enough, Kate thinks as she follows Seth through the door. 

Her and Darla used to have their lunch down here during those summer weeks when she’d visit; swimming all morning and lazily lounging in the sun chairs or across the dock on blankets with lemon tea and sandwiches. They used to hide away from Scott here whenever they just wanted to talk about guys or listen to the Backstreet Boys on Darla’s portable radio, and she finds it utterly surreal as she steps through the door. 

It looks exactly the same; small and cozy with a wood burning stove, large leather couch and a small timber kitchen area. Kate can’t help but find that her eyes go straight to the door that lies in front of her- the one she knows a large double bed rests behind. 

She had slept in the same bed as Seth last night, but when she awoke this morning at 4am he was already downstairs dressed and ready to go. She has a vague memory of feeling his strong arms wrapped around her, but then again that could have been the dream she was having. 

“So, make yourselves at home” Darla waves a hand around the tiny cottage with a smile, her crystal eyes going between the two guests who stand before her “we’re having a drinks reception downtown at six, so relax before then and I’ll see you later” 

“Okay, thanks” Kate throws a smile her cousins way but she’s not looking at her, choosing instead to eye Seth steadily with her hands clasped in front of her. There’s an impatient look on her face and Seth bristles where he stands, his hands yet again clasping the luggage. 

“I’ll go put these away” he says, finally getting the hint that he’s not wanted right now and casts Kate a humoured look over his shoulder as he opens the oak door to the bedroom and slips inside. 

As soon as he’s out of ear shot, Darla hurries towards Kate with a look of sorrow pulling at her glossed lips, but with a tangible excitement lighting her eyes. She’s a gossip filled paradox, not knowing whether to delight or be mournful telling people the snippets of news she can never hold behind her tongue. 

“Kyle arrived this morning with Paloma” she whispers hurriedly, her fingers clutching Kate’s upper arms. 

Kate’s heart nearly jumps out of her chest at the mention of Kyle’s name; the very stifling reality of his close proximity causing anxiety to bubble up inside of her. Her eyes skip out the window behind Darla towards the direction of the house, and she wonders if he’s inside, talking and laughing with her family like he hadn’t ripped out her heart and stomped on it. She may be pretending she’s in a relationship with another man, but Kyle’s the impostor. 

“_Paloma_?” Kate questions with a furrowed brow and a pulled down bottom lip. 

“His _fiancee_” Darla announces in a tone that is slightly level, as if she isn’t sure how the words feel or taste. Kate guesses the tang of them is bitter on her tongue because she makes a screwed up face after they come out. 

“Oh” Kate manages to say, a sudden cold rush of sadness gripping her heart but it settles itself when she hears Seth’s footsteps in the next room. 

She had him here with her this week for this very purpose, to not make her seem like some lonely, _sad_ woman. She was in a_ "relationship" _with a smoking hot thirty three year old who had his shit together. Take that Kyle Winthrop and Penelope. Sorry, _Paloma_. 

“I’m just giving you a warning” her cousin states with her eyes settled on Kate’s. 

“Oh, yeah? Like how you gave me a warning about him being the best man?” 

“I’ve already said I was sorry for that. I just didn’t know how to tell you, Katie. You know you’re like my sister” _there it is_ “I just didn’t want to hurt you” 

“Well I’m not hurt! I’m over him. _Clearly_” Kate waves a hand in the direction of the bedroom door “I just didn’t fancy spending three days near the slimy cheater when I thought I had seen the last of him the night I left him. That’s all” 

"Does he know about Kyle?" Darla asks with her eyes flickering to where Seth is now making noise by pulling out drawers and unzipping his luggage. 

"Of course he knows, Darla" Kate rolls her eyes "Seth knows everything. I've never kept anything from him about this. We've no secrets" 

"Well it would have been awkward if he didn't know" 

"Yeah, very awkward" Kate plays along, her hands fiddling with her long hair. 

“I didn’t want him here, you know. I threw up a fuss when Josh told me he was best man. I begged him to pick any one of his other friends from Bethel, but he insisted Kyle was his best friend” Darla tells Kate, and her voice is in no way deceitful. Kate can see it in her eyes that she’s telling the truth. Darla may be over dramatic and a little bit too competitive but her loyalty to Kate is unwavering “But if it’s any consolation, he’s staying in town. I would not have him staying in my house”

“They always were joined at the hip in high school, and college” Kate shrugs “I guess it wouldn’t have been fair to not have him here for my sake. But thank you” 

“You always were too understanding, Katie” Darla sighs, but she smiles in a grateful sort of way; probably thankful that Kate isn’t someone who starts drama over things “anyway, I have to get back and get ready for this evening. Six o’clock. The Dew Drop. Okay?” 

“Yes, I’ll be there. We’ll be there” Kate corrects herself with a grin and a wave as Darla walks out the door and closes it with a sly wink. Kate stands there for a moment with her hands on her hips and a mind that is struggling to comprehend her situation.

In a matter of hours she was going to face a man she hadn't seen in a year. A man who had come to her Daddy's house with a bandaged head and bunch of flowers. But she had refused to see him, and two weeks later she was on a bus to Houston. 

“She seems...like a piece of work” 

Kate almost jumps at the sound of Seth’s voice since she hadn’t heard his footsteps approach, and she whips around with a hand clamped over her chest. 

“You a part time burglar or something? I didn’t even hear you” Kate laughs as her heart calms down a bit “and she isn’t really all that bad once you get to know her. She’s just used to everyone falling in love with her and getting her own way” 

“I can definitely relate to that” Seth mocks and Kate rolls her eyes at the way his plump lips turn into a smirk, but she can’t fault him for his observation. At least the falling in love part. 

“Wait until you meet my Aunt Nancy. Just don’t let her get you on your own, who knows what she might do to you” Kate shudders at the haunting image that swirls in her head just then. 

Her mother’s sister had an eye for the younger man, and to a sixty year old, Seth was practically a baby. Plus he was tall, dark and handsome with just a spark of danger in his brown eyes. He was just Aunt Nancy’s type. 

“I’ll stay well away, but I don’t think it matters much anyway. Aunt Nancy doesn’t seem like my type” Seth says smoothly, his eyes dragging down Kate’s legs that are bare beneath her blue sundress. She shifts awkwardly where she stands, feeling her heart and stomach flutter. 

“I uh, never really thanked you for doing this” Kate decides to change the course of the subject, her face feeling hotter than the sticky heat outside. 

“You don’t need to thank me, Kate” Seth folds his arms across his chest and shakes his head. He’s always been the kind of person to deflect from any semblance of gratitude, and now is no different. His hazel eyes drop to his feet to avoid her focused look, and those bulging arms that rest over his chest flex as he clenches a fist. 

“Of course I do. You came all this way with me because I needed help, I mean who does that? You’re a good man, Seth. You really don’t give yourself enough credit” Kate tells him as she busies herself filling the small electric kettle. Coffee sounds good right about now. With the tangible tension Seth causes within her, making her mind fuzzy and dreamy, she can sure count on caffeine to wake her up. 

He lifts his eyes to hers now; burning with a seriousness that causes her stomach to clench. “Don’t ever make the mistake in thinking I’m a good man, Kate” he tells her steadily “I’m not like those church boys you went to school with” 

Well, if that’s not the understatement of the century. Kate knows he’s not like anyone she’s ever met before. He’s broken underneath his sarcastic wit, and deep down inside the hardened shell of the man that stands before her there is a frightened boy who barely escaped a tragic childhood. 

She knows about the fire, even if he doesn’t know that Richard had told her how their old man had fallen asleep with a cigarette in his hand, and she knows those black flames that wind their way up his tanned skin are not for decoration. 

Kate can keep her memories hidden behind false smiles, but Seth wears his on his skin. 

Sure he’s a recovered addict, and she knows that because Seth had told her himself in a rare moment of vulnerability, and he’s a whirlwind of anger and irritation most days. But he is not a bad man, of that she’s certain. 

“You’re right” Kate breathes out heavily, feeling the weight of his gaze even heavier when he doesn’t look away from her “you are nothing like those boys I went to school with. You’ve never hurt me like how a _church boy_ did” 

There’s something that flickers across his pouty features then that makes question upon question spin around her head. He looks sad, angry and thoughtful all at once and his eyes shimmer with unsaid revelations that Kate feels too afraid to probe in that moment. The kettle whistles loudly and her eyes tear from his. 

“Coffee?” she asks him, reaching up on her toes to take a mug from the cupboard.

“No thanks. You mind if I take the first shower?” he asks and she nods while spooning granules into the mug.

She tries hard not to think of him stripping out of those black jeans and stepping into a steamy shower; water trickling down his muscled back and over his devastatingly gorgeous face. She thinks of his big, rough hands running over his taut stomach and in his hair, and suddenly her mind changes his hands to hers. Oh god above, she curses silently in her head, it’d be Heaven on Earth to take a shower with Seth Gecko. 

“No, you go ahead. I’ll go after” Kate says as she pours the boiling hot water into her cup, and then mumbles to herself as an afterthought “I’ll just take a nice cold one” 

“What was that, princess?” Seth questions with raised eyebrows as he turns back to look at her, one hand on the bedroom door.

“Nothing” she adds too quickly, blowing on her coffee in an attempt to act nonchalant but Seth doesn’t back into the doorway like she thought, his eyes finding hers across the small house. 

“Oh, Kate, before I forget. You put this in the wrong bag”. Before she even knows what’s happening he’s tossing her a white envelope from across the small space and her hands barely react in time, the envelope nearly slipping from her grasp and onto the floor. But she holds it tight and eyes it with a grimacing glare. 

“You’re not that slick, Fuller” he shrugs with a smile and Kate sighs exasperatedly, leaning against the counter. She’d shoved the envelope full of money into his bag back in Bethel this morning when he hadn’t been looking, and the utter annoyance inside of her right now is bubbling to a boiling point. 

“Seth, for the millionth _damn_ time, just take the money!” she tells him with a dramatic wave of the envelope for emphasis. 

“Kate, I told you this back in Houston. I don’t want your money, alright? It’d feel wrong, and we’ll just leave it at that” Seth puts a hand on his hip, the other waving in the air with his words. 

“If I had hired a male escort I would’ve had to pay them” Kate argues weakly as she holds the money outwards as if it burns and the anger inside her grows when Seth actually laughs. 

“That’s funny, princess. But you didn’t _hire_ me, therefore I don’t need to be _paid_” he emphasises in that irresistibly husky voice of his as he begins to stalk towards her. 

“Seth, please” she whispers out to him, her fingers wiggling the envelope out for him to take. It’s not much but it’s enough to cover his fuel expenses and for the time he’s giving up to be here, and she so desperately wants to pay him so he doesn’t feel like this week wasn’t worth his time. 

His hand clutches around her wrist, his fingers scorching her skin, and he slowly but surely takes a step closer to her as he gently moves her arm to her side. He’s close enough now that his breath is tickling her forehead and stirring the hairs around her face. She knows if he just stepped a fraction closer that the tight front of her sundress would be pressed flush against his chest, and her knees feel weak at the thought. 

His eyes, damn those eyes with those heavy lashes, stare into hers with a steadied engrossment and she really has to control herself from whimpering like she wants to. Just having him this close to her with his stifling body heat and addictive smell is causing her to go into cardiac arrest.

Lord almighty, she thinks, what would it be like to kiss him or to have her body pressed right against his? Sinful. That’s what. She wants to commit those sins of the flesh the bible spouted on about with Seth Gecko. 

Those fiery pits of Hell she was thinking about earlier? Totally worth it for him. 

“Keep the money, Kate” his voice is dripping with a will for her to be submissive to his request “I’m sure you can pay me back some other way. Some other time” 

_Fuck_, her head screams.

“You’re impossible” she grits out, finding it embarrassing how much her voice shakes but he just smiles at her widely and lets her hand go. 

“So I’ve been told” he throws over his shoulder as he turns and almost bounds towards the bedroom door.

He disappears behind it and Kate is left feeling like she’s a fire that won’t ever be put out. Every inch of her skin is electric and she’s pretty sure her whole body is now fuchsia pink thanks to its traitor efforts of revealing how much she adores him. 

“Damn you” Kate breathes out, eyes focusing on the door of the bedroom and listening to the running of the water to calm herself. 

She tries to cool off later in the shower when Seth is _finally_ done, and completely ignores how the setting has already been turned to cold. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter we will see Kyle and Seth meet for the first time....


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone likes this story so far! This is a long chapter which I hope is okay because I know some people don't like fics with long chapters or slow burn. But we're nearly there guys!

** _The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead- Marilyn Monroe_ **

* * *

The Dew Drop turns out to be the sort of establishment that Seth has always tried to avoid. Swanky and elegant, set downtown in between a pretentious looking restaurant and a boutique and he can almost feel the self righteousness radiating from the building. 

It’s just how he pictured it inside- clean and modern with a glittering chandelier and a piano tucked proudly in the corner with some old geezer tinkling away on it. There’s a large bar of dark oak that wraps around in a semicircle, and Seth eyes it appreciatively before remembering he’s driving. _Fuck it_, he curses to himself. 

He feels like he needs a drink, and a strong one at that. Ever since he’d arrived here he’s been on edge; his whole body tensed with anticipation for something he can’t foresee. He knows it’s partly to do with the truth that is aching to crawl past his lips and violently be blurted out. He knows he needs to tell Kate everything before he gets too carried away but everytime he decides to tell her, his mind freezes and nothing comes out. 

His sudden need for a numbing agent such as alcohol is also to do with how much _desire_ is coursing through his veins and turning him into a wanton creature full of an unbearable ache. He’d almost lost it when Kate had finally stepped out of the bedroom this evening, dressed and ready to go. 

He hasn’t stopped ogling her since then. 

He lets his eyes trail to where she stands beside him, a champagne flute in her hands and her teeth worrying her bottom lip.

Her dress is emerald green and figure hugging; that tiny waist of hers accentuated and her wide hips being clothed perfectly by the material. It comes past her knee and is off the shoulder with thick straps that wrap around her upper arms; very modest Seth admits, but just the sight of her calves and the top of her chest is driving him insane. 

He takes his eyes off her and looks at the bar yet again, trying not to focus on how much he wants to run his fingers through the hair that is curled down her back and how the dress perfectly matches her eyes. 

“Katie, darling!” The high pitched leer makes him tear his eyes away from the bar and to a very thin, well dressed woman who sways her way across the crowded room. He can feel Kate tense up beside him and she automatically steps closer to him, something that makes his mouth twitch into a smile. 

“Aunt Nancy” Kate greets with a beam on her face that looks like it’s causing her muscles to ache. The older woman wraps her up in a hug, her lips twitching to kiss the air above Kate’s cheek in an attempt to not ruin the perfectly applied rouge on her mouth. 

Seth can’t help but observe with a smirk that Aunt Nancy looks like a cast member from the eighties version of Dynasty. Her black hair is styled into a beehive that could rival a skyscraper and her eyes are framed in dark eyeliner that’s winged out at the corners. Seth can see how she could look like Kate’s mother, her sister, without all the ridiculous makeup and obvious botox. Her deep set eyes that sparkle the same colour as her nieces now turn to look at Seth with a twinkle in them that makes him gulp. 

“_Seth_! Welcome! I couldn’t wait to meet you” Nancy greets and before Seth knows it she’s wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a very forceful embrace. She smells of sherry and tobacco, and the scent nearly knocks the breath from him. 

“Likewise” Seth tells her as she pulls away, but those manicured hands grip his biceps tightly and her lips curl at the corners. Seth feels like he’s a piece of prime steak ready to be cut up. He gulps again. 

“What a specimen you are” Nancy coos with an appreciative look “I have always been weak for a man in a three piece, and you are just one handsome devil. Kate, _where_ did you find him?” 

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Kate sighs, sliding her hand in the crook of Seth’s elbow and pulling him away so discreetly it almost goes unnoticed. But Seth can feel the possessive grip she has on his arm. Nancy lets Seth go and throws a disapproving sort of glare Kate’s way. 

“I’m glad you’re here, Kate. You know, after you found out about Kyle being here I doubted you’d even show up” her Aunt waves a hand and suddenly there's a tray of champagne in front of her held by some scrawny server that she greedily plucks a glass from “I wouldn’t have blamed you of course, being dumped is never easy especially when you’re so young” 

“I wasn’t dumped, Aunt Nancy. I was cheated on. _I_ dumped _him_” Kate clarifies with a bite in her tone that Seth is entirely unaccustomed to hearing. 

“Yes, yes, whichever. But I really truly feel for you, Katie. This could have been your engagement party but things weren’t meant to be unfortunately” Nancy sighs wistfully after taking a swig of champagne and Seth can’t tell whether the woman is trying to be purposely cruel or is just blissfully unaware of other people’s feelings. 

“I think things turned out for the better, wouldn’t you agree?” Kate says, leaning into Seth’s side even more “since now I have, what did you call him again? Oh yeah, such a handsome devil on my arm” 

Seth is sure his heart is after seizing in his chest and he looks at Kate with widened eyes. She’s bold when she chooses, and the coy smirk on her face and the twinkle in her eye that glistens as she looks at her Aunt is constructed from pure playfulness. Nancy runs a finger around the rim of the glass and looks between the two of them with dark green eyes full of a mischievous appreciation. 

“Oh I’m certain things have turned out better for you, Katie” Nancy agrees with a cock of her head. Seth is amazed she doesn’t topple over with the weight of her excessive hairstyle “I’m sure once Kyle sees the two of you together he’ll regret every silly decision he made” 

“He can save his regret” Kate murmurs with a grimace, bringing her glass to her lips and squeezing Seth’s arm even more. He brings a hand over the one she has clenched into his elbow and circles it with a thumb before he can even stop himself, but the relaxed way she settles herself into his side stops any doubtful thoughts in his head. 

“Enough about Kyle. I want to learn more about _you_” Nancy points a finger towards Seth and lets her red lips etch into a beam that shows a row of sparkling white teeth. 

“Not much to learn, ma’am” Seth smiles that smile that holds a thousand secrets, the gesture only enticing Nancy further with a cock of her hips but before she can make her way towards him a gentle shout of Nancy’s name rings out. Her tight face raises with as much surprise she can muster as she looks behind Seth’s shoulder, and suddenly all interest in him vanishes as she moves to greet the latest guests. 

“I’ll chat to you kids later” she winks dangerously, sauntering off with a click of her kitten heels. 

Kate sighs with a heavy relief that is alleviated with the last gulp of champagne she downs with an elegant tip of her head. She eyes the glass forlornly then with a pout of her lips and a sad haze in her eyes. 

“Told you she was a piece of work” Kate remarks bitterly with a grimace, her eyes tearing from the glass to come to Seth’s face. 

Through the anxious haze of anticipation that has clouded over her since she arrived here, she hasn’t fully looked at Seth and appreciated him like how most of the other women here are doing.

But she looks now, and can’t help the way her heart flutters maddeningly in her chest at the sight of his five o’clock shadow and the way his expensive suit clings to his body in a way that shows off how broad he is. 

“I think you need something stronger than champagne” Seth comments as he gently plucks the glass flute from Kate’s hand; the action quickly putting an end to her ogling. 

“I think so” Kate nods. She almost wishes she could drink a whole bottle of tequila without consequence after her Aunt’s conversation. Kate wonders how the woman can have such a talent for making people feel so small and whittled down with only a few words. 

She feels Seth’s arm slip away from hers and his body heat disappear from her side, and she is almost embarrassed at how much she aches to reach out and drag him back to her. Her hands fiddle with the gold clutch she has slung around her wrist on a small strap to distract her itching fingers. 

“You want your usual?” Seth smirks at her, knowing exactly what she likes to drink at Jed’s on Saturday nights. Gin, tonic water and lime cordial. 

“Yes, please. Thanks, Seth” Kate sighs appreciatively but Seth seems to notice something sad that flickers across her face- because the small space between them is completely closed then with one stride. He’s commanding and soft all at once as he steps up to her in all his broad shouldered glory, and Kate feels like she’ll wobble in her heels if she so much as moves.

“Smile, Katie” he tells her breezily, his large hand coming to cup her face and when he leans into her ear she’s sure her heartbeat can be heard over the classic tinkling of the piano. He whispers to her then, soft and sure “You’re doing fine. Just breathe, baby” 

_Breathe?_ She’s sure most of the air in her lungs has now been quashed by his proximity.

His hand slides from her cheek into the hair that tumbles down her back and she visibly shivers when she feels the soft rake of his nails against her scalp. She is sure she looks like a flushed mess and that her many relatives and most of the wedding party are probably staring at her right now. 

But she can’t seem to care. Not when Seth Gecko is holding her close to him and filling her senses with the intoxicating smell of his cologne, and not when her trembling hands are on his chest. God, that _chest_. Kate can feel his heart soaring rapidly beneath his white dress shirt but then again that could be her own heartbeat she’s feeling in her fingertips. 

Kate shakily lets out a deep breath and then before she can even blink, his plump lips are pressed to her forehead. Her body thrills at the feel of his lips on her skin and the sigh that escapes her is whimsical and dreamy.

Never in her life has she been so swept off her feet by a simple thing like a forehead kiss. 

“I’ll be back with that drink” he tells her as he pulls away, a kind light in his eyes and a smile on his lips. All Kate can do is nod dumbly with a violent blush on her cheeks and she’s well aware that pairs upon pairs of eyes are on her. She watches him frozenly for a moment before her body decides to move. 

She turns around then on weak legs and ambles under the archway of the room, and out into the hallway where the toilet sign directs her around a corner. She needs a minute to cool herself down and slow her thumping heart that feels as if it’s going to explode from her chest any minute. 

But her heart begins to hammer with a different sort of emotion when she rounds the corner and bumps straight into a familiar face. 

“Kate?” the young man stutters out, his dark eyes growing wide. 

Kate suddenly feels as if she’s just been thrown into a dark tunnel that is rapidly replacing all the light in her life with a horrid shade of obsidian. She sways a little on her feet and grips the clutch in her hands so hard it makes her knuckles bone white. 

_I can’t believe you! I loved you and you do this! _

_Kate, please, I can explain! _

_Explain? Explain why there’s a naked woman on our couch? I think I know exactly what’s been going on. _

_Don’t leave, Kate! _

_It’s over! I never want to see you again! _

She had _never_ wanted to see him again, but here he stands before her with a disbelieved look on his face and eyes that take her figure in. She crosses her arms self consciously around her waist and shuffles awkwardly where she stands. 

“Kyle” Kate grits out with a stiff nod and eyes that look anywhere but his face.

He’s cut his hair since the last time she saw him but he still looks young and boyish with the sharp angles of his innocent looking face. He looks like a child compared to Seth, and it’s a comparison that thrills Kate more than it should. 

“I didn’t expect to see you” he breathes out to her in a dubious tone and Kate scoffs with an eye roll. 

“At my cousins wedding?” she raises an eyebrow and tightens her arms around herself as she meets his eyes. Kate used to think Kyle had pretty eyes but those eyes had looked into hers as he told her _I love you_ countless times. But his declarations had been lies, and now as she looks at him she sees nothing but emptiness. 

“I just thought that you wouldn’t show up because-”

“Because of _what_? You thought I wouldn’t show up at my cousins wedding because of _you_?” she snaps, suddenly feeling a little braver at his audacity to assume such a thing “if there’s anyone who shouldn’t have shown up, it’s you” 

She tries to shoulder past him but he blocks her way with a hurried sort of desperation, an arm stretching out across the narrow hallway and stopping her in her tracks. She eyes him dangerously then with a seething glare, but he doesn’t relent. 

“I’ve missed you, Katie” Kyle tells her in a hushed whisper, but she can hear the strain in it. No doubt stemming from the guilt he’s built up from sharing their bed and couch with some mindless blonde he’d been having an affair with. 

“_Don’t_ call me Katie” she spits with an enraged glare, but she can feel her strength waver underneath the hardened facade she’s putting up. 

She’s damn well nervous and her head is spinning just from being close to him after not seeing or hearing from him in a year. She used to think she’d have a life with him, filled with children and humble Sunday services.

But that life had been swiped away like a cloud of smoke as soon as she’d thrown her shiny engagement ring at him. 

“Can we talk?” he asks desperately and Kate doesn’t miss how his eyes flicker behind her towards the reception area. He’s probably paranoid that they have an audience, or that his fiancé is watching them. 

“I have nothing to say to you” Kate tells him, forcibly pushing her way past him “why don’t you go back to your fiancé and stop bothering me” 

“Darla said you’re here with someone. That true?” Kyle asks her and Kate fights the urge to laugh in his face. How dare he question her on who she’s here with! He does not get that right. 

“That’s none of your business, Kyle. You lost the right to care about me or anything I do when you screwed someone behind my back” with that she stomps her way inside the bathroom and closes the door with a bang.

Once inside the confines of the cool toilet she shakily places her hands on the sink and breathes so heavily she feels faint. 

“Kate” she sighs as she raises her eyes to stare at the reflection in the mirror “what have you gotten yourself into?” 

* * *

Seth stares at his phone with a grimace as he reads the latest text from his disastrous ex wife._ I’m waiting_, it reads. He doesn’t even bother to respond as he shuts the phone off and begins to tuck it into his suit pocket, but a jostling body against his side stalls his movements. He sways a little on his feet and eyes the stranger that is now hurriedly trying to wave the bartender over. 

“Sorry about that” the young man explains with a held up hand and a pointed look Seth’s way “I barely even saw you there” 

“You alright, pal? You look a little worse for wear” Seth observes as he lets his eyes take in the man’s strained looking face. He has that sort of angular face that makes him appear as if he hasn’t fully grown into his features yet, and his hair is just below his ears. He looks like the missing sixth member of N Sync.

The young guy leans his pointy elbows on the bar and puts his face in his hands with a groan. Seth has seen enough troubled people at Jed's to know that this guy is fighting some losing battle within himself. 

“I ran into my ex in the hallway just now, who I haven’t seen in a year and I’m here with my current fiancé. Jeez, this whole thing is a mess. Bartender!” he turns away from Seth and waves frantically yet again but the busy bartender doesn’t look his way “plus I heard she’s here with some muscled douchebag” 

Seth opens his mouth to reply, his mind clicking with the definitive realisation of who it is that’s standing before him, but he doesn’t get the chance to say anything. 

“There you are! I was looking for you, handsome” he hears beside him, a pair of arms snaking around his neck and pouty lips delicately kissing the stubble on his jaw. The young man, Kyle, looks between them like a deer caught in headlights and Seth can only grin in response. That look that he’s wearing on his face right now? Yeah it makes this whole fake date thing worth it. 

“Hey, Katie. I missed you, baby” Seth smoothly wraps an arm around Kate’s waist and pulls her close, his other hand plucking the gin glass from the bar top and handing it to her. 

She takes it with a grateful smile, some sort of rush swimming in her green eyes as her free hand snakes to the back of his neck. Seth shivers with desire when she runs her cool fingertips along the cropped hair on his head. She’s playing the game well, he thinks, but he’d gladly play along with her all day. 

"Katie, huh?" Kyle questions dumbly as his eyes trace his exes face. But Kate ignores his prompt and eyes Seth instead. 

“I see you’ve met Kyle. My ex” Kate tells Seth with ice in her tone but he doesn’t miss how she takes a large gulp of her drink after. 

“I’m Seth. The muscled douche bag you were just talking about” Seth glares at Kyle, delighting when the young man squirms and avoids Seth’s eyes. Kate makes a shocked kind of gasp from back in her throat that doesn’t sound feigned at all, and when Seth drags his eyes to her pretty face it’s glowering with a deep annoyance. 

“_What_ did you call him?” Kate hisses out, her hand snaking over Seth’s shoulder. 

“Shit, dude, I’d no idea” Kate’s ex stammers, a hand running through his longish hair and ignoring Kate’s question. 

Looking at this guy standing near Kate is almost too surreal to process. He’s lanky and boyish, and has the sort of face that oozes innocence; exactly how Seth had pictured the perfect church boy’s Kate had grown up with. He shouldn’t feel jealous of him, but staring at him and knowing that those shaky hands by his side had held Kate while making love to her fills him with a seething envy. 

But he relaxes again when he feels Kate’s warmth by his side, and the hand around the soft curve of her hip tightens. He’s the one holding her now, and he knows by the look on Kyle’s face that he too is envious. 

“Don’t sweat it” Seth holds up a hand to Kyle with a smirk on his face, his arm possessively snaking further around Kate’s waist “at least I’m not the douchebag who cheated on her. Come on, baby girl, let’s go” 

He smoothly pulls Kate away from the bar by the hand and through the mingling crowd. He can see Kate’s father in the corner by the piano, chattering away to some old couple and Scott who looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. He doesn’t head in their direction though but pulls them through the french doors and out onto the large veranda that juts out towards a pristine garden. 

Kate is bubbling with excitement and has a spark of pure mischief in her green eyes. “Oh my word, that was amazing! I can’t believe you said that to him!” she exclaims with a laugh as she sets her half empty glass on the table beside them and takes his face between her now free hands “thank you, you totally made him feel like shit” 

“Yeah well he deserves to feel like that” Seth tells her, a shiver rolling through him at the feel of her palms against his jaw. She’s touched him a lot this evening, but then again he’s sure he’s touched her just as much. But she drops her hands suddenly as if only realising that they’re on him, and a deep crimson begins to colour her face. 

“Maybe I laid it on a bit thick, I’m sorry. I just wanted him to feel bad. Is that horrible of me?” she questions with a screwed up face, her hands busying themselves with her glass again. 

He thinks then of her hands on him at the bar and how she’d willingly let herself be wrapped up in his embrace. Plus she’d called him _handsome_, and if that wasn’t a boost to the ego then Seth didn’t know what was. It was merely all for show, and to allow Kyle to understand that he’s lost Kate forever. But Seth wouldn’t have cared if she’d made out with him just for theatrics sake- he would have gladly played along with her. 

“You were fine, Kate. And you’re not horrible, alright? Fuck him, he’s the horrible one!” Seth tells her “I can’t believe you were with that guy. Jesus Christ, princess, he looks like some twelve year old choir boy. You should have never been with a guy like _that_” 

“Yeah? And who should I be with?” Kate asks him, her voice nearly a whisper and her glittering green eyes looking up at him through thick, dark lashes. He swallows thickly; mind racing and hands aching to touch her somewhere. Her face, her hair, her body. But before anything is acted on they’re interrupted.

Fuck, he thinks, why does that keep happening? 

“Kate! Seth!”. They both turn to see Scott standing in the doorway with his arms folded and an exasperated look on his face. He looks oddly comical compared to everyone else here in this swanky bar with his dark jeans and Fanglorious t shirt, but Seth can certainly admire his ability to not give a shit.

“Dad told me to come get you, Aunt Nancy is making a speech” he rolls his eyes so hard they disappear into the back of his skull for a second and then he stalks off back into the large function room. 

“Come on” Kate sighs heavily, her dainty hand wrapping around Seth’s elbow and pulling him back through the French doors. 

Now that everyone is gathered like a congregation in the middle of the room Seth has time to study each person that stands around holding flutes of champagne and glasses of wine in their hands, and doesn’t ignore the fact that each of them look wealthier than the next. These are the type of people he would have robbed and swindled before he was thrown into prison. 

While Kate’s family are more humble, it seems that their Tennessee relatives live up to the wealthy Southern stereotype and each stand around in expensive clothes and jewellery. He can’t seem to miss how some stuffy looking old bats eye him disapprovingly from where he stands beside Kate, but he just clenches his jaw and keeps his eyes focused on where Nancy is stumbling onto a small platform. He knows he’s not good enough for Kate; he doesn’t need some rich senior citizens to tell him that. 

“Thank you all for coming” Aunt Nancy announces with a well hidden slur. 

She’s drunk, clearly, but not the kind of messy drunk that screams with a vulgar obviousness. No, she’s the sort of drunk that makes her eyes glassy and her lips curl into a smile despite nothing being at all humourous. Those heavily lined eyes scan the crowd and she beams; clearly loving how everyone’s attention is on her. 

“I am so happy that you could all be here for my darling Darla’s wedding! I never thought I would see the day but here I am!” she laughs with a theatrical wave and the champagne in her glass swirls around violently “I am just so grateful that God could give my baby a man who loves her and who she loves in return” 

“Oh please” Seth scoffs quietly in Kate’s ear, making her shush him with a giggle and an elbow to the side. But it seems like he’s the only one in the room who’s sceptical on the matchmaking skills of the man upstairs because everyone else seems to be romantically swooning. 

A soft murmur of appreciation goes through the crowd then, and Seth’s eyes find the red headed Southern belle from across the room where she beams like a pageant queen. She has her arm around a stocky guy with cropped blond hair who Seth can only assume to be her fiance. The poor guy looks as red as a beet with everyone’s eyes boring into his face. 

“You know, at a time like this, it's important to think of all our loved ones who have gone before us” Nancy dramatically places a hand over her heart, and the mumbling crowd nod their heads. Seth suddenly feels like he’s in church “I think of my husband, Darla’s daddy, who won’t see her getting married. I think of my dear sister who can't be here either. Jenny and I used to talk about our dream weddings when we were girls and Darla used to talk about it all the time when _she_ was younger! Her and my niece, Kate, of course” 

Each pair of eyes swivel to the wall where Kate and Seth are standing, and the blush that spreads across her face is crimson and blotchy. She just gives out a weak smile and tips her glass in a friendly kind of salute before dropping her eyes to the floor. Seth can see despite her embarrassment that she's upset over the mention of her mother, a sadness she's trying hard to bury.

“They used to talk about nothing else! They had made a bet to see who would get married first” Nancy rambles on, waving a hand in a circle and wobbling a little on her ankles “of course when Kate got engaged we thought it would be her, but we’re all still waiting on the big day, Katie Cakes! Looks like you owe Darla that ten dollars now!” 

The crowd seems to erupt into a soft murmur of laughter, and the blush on Kate’s face disappears altogether and is replaced by a ghostly shade of pale. Seth can see Scott and her father from across the room; both with horror stricken expressions as Kate slams her glass down and begins to storm through the crowd. Fuck, Seth curses as he follows her, elbowing his way past ogling guests. 

Outside, the sky is beginning to dim into a shade of dark orange and the sun is slowly starting to sink. The chill is biting now, gone is the sticky heat of earlier and Seth shivers as he stands on the street as he looks for Kate. He sees her then, stomping across the road a little carefully since she’s wearing heels and he jogs after her. She whips around when she feels him come up beside her, dark hair spilling over her bare shoulder that she impatiently swats away. 

“_Fuck them!”_ she seethes with her teary eyes glaring at the building she just came from “I don’t curse aloud often…..but fuck them! Fuck all of those fucking fuckers!” 

She chokes out a cry then and big tears spill from her eyes, the action causing Seth to take her face in his hands to wipe them away.

“Yeah, that’s it baby, let it out” he comforts her “you’re right, fuck them. They’re not worth it” 

“I’m always the joke! Even when we were kids I was never good enough or smart enough and now I’m being laughed at because I lost a silly bet we made when we were younger about who’d be married first. I mean, how stupid is that?” she sobs as she looks at Seth, her sad eyes causing something inside of him to stir with affection. He gathers her into his arms and holds her tight while she swears and rants about her Aunt and cousin, and she clings to him too with trembling hands. 

“You’re not a joke, Kate” Seth tells her gently but Kate pulls away from him with a scoff, her hands furiously wiping her wet cheeks. 

“Of course I am! Jesus, I was so stupid! I came here with you so people wouldn’t think I was some pathetic jilted girl but they’re all laughing at me anyway!” 

“You wanna get out of here?” Seth offers, watching as she turns back to him with intrigue in her eyes “we don’t have to go back in there if you don’t want to. We could just drive around for a bit” 

“Yeah, okay” Kate smiles genuinely with a nod “let’s get out of here” 

* * *

The diner they had ended up driving out to is small and poky, with a broken flickering sign out front that casts a neon glow against the dirt of the parking lot. There's a family down the back that keep giggling amongst themselves and some old guy who's tucked by the window drinking coffee. Other than that it's just Seth and Kate who sit safely in the corner in one of those tacky leather booths.

Kate sits across from him, beautifully hidden by the expanse of his suit jacket and every so often she has to keep pushing it up her arms. It's an endearing sight to behold, and Seth can't keep his eyes off her.

"You alright?" he asks her, voice gravelly and eyes intent on her pretty face. She'd stopped crying as soon as Seth had shook off his jacket and draped it on her shoulders as they'd walked to his car. A gentlemanly move Richard would have applauded him for.

Kate looks at him now, big eyes green and gentle, and nods around a mouthful of fries.

"I'm alright" she tells him with a firm honesty and a smile on her face “I really shouldn’t have expected anything else from my Aunt Nancy. She always was too fond of her own voice” 

“She was drunk, most of those people back there probably were. I’d doubt they’ll remember anything in the morning” Seth reassures her; his brown eyes following how her lips pout around the thin straw in her shake. _God damn_. 

“Yeah well fuck them. We only have a few more days here and then they can all kiss my ass goodbye” Kate bitterly grimaces. She’s really very adorable when she furrows her face like that and puckers her lips, but Seth is certain she wouldn’t be too happy to know that. Her rage is very real despite her poor facial attempts at showing it. 

“My, my Katie Cakes. So much cussing in one day. I’d say that deserves a trip to the confessional” he laughs when she tries to kick him under the table but her short legs don’t quite reach him. 

“Well I wonder whose influence is to blame? You only swear at every second word” she smirks, sucking that pink slush through her straw and turning her eyes up at him. 

“Yeah, well when you grow up around an asshole like Richard you need to learn colourful language to express yourself” Seth explains with a smirk and she giggles before going quiet, picking up a salted fry and biting into it. “What are you thinking about?” 

“Nothing…..” Kate lets out slowly, but a smile etches itself onto her face and she can’t help herself from blurting out “muscled douchebag? I think that’s hilarious. I can’t stop picturing his face when he realised it was you” 

“It was a weak insult, but not entirely wrong though. I am a bit of a douchebag and I have muscles” Seth raises an eyebrow and an arm, poking his impressive biceps with a finger but Kate just rolls her eyes. 

“Now you’re being a douchebag” she laughs, her high cheekbones colouring a humorous shade of pink. 

“You like my muscles, Katie, just admit it” he prods her foot under the table playfully but she gives it a kick back. 

“I’m saying nothing” Kate waves a hand over her mouth in the act of zipping it “I won’t inflate your ego any more than my Aunt did. Oh I go weak for a man in a three piece!” she pretend swoons in the booth, her back throwing against the leather and a hand over her forehead. 

“Jesus, that woman will be the reason I’ll speed out of Tennessee as soon as the wedding is over” Seth shudders where he sits, remembering the way the old lady had eyed him like a meal. 

“If you make it out alive” Kate states dramatically with an ominious tone, and then she laughs lightheartedly and genuine. Seth is just happy to see her leave her sadness behind her for the night because he really hates it when Kate is in anyway emotionally vulnerable. It hurts him as much as it does her. 

“Hey, you know, when we get back to Houston I gotta take you somewhere proper to eat. Not in any more diners” Seth tells her, scratching his neck and trying to be nonchalant. But when her eyes snap to his with a warm glint in them he can’t deny how his heart picks up. 

“That a promise, Gecko?” she asks him with a pretty grin and he nods. 

“Yeah, princess. That’s a promise” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has anyone seen the Netflix series Godless? I'm planning a western age sethkate au where Kate is the towns preachers daughter (obviously) and Seth is the wanted outlaw who she's hiding in her barn. Would anyone like to see that?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over 1000 people have read this story?! That makes me so happy because it tells me that people still care about this ship and that just excited me so much! Thank you everyone for your patience, I know I haven't updated in a while but work has been super busy lately that I've felt like I'd no time for anything at all. Hope you enjoy this chapter guys!

Kate wakes the next morning groggy and heavy limbed as the sun spills into the room through the crack in the curtains, and her eyes squint painfully when the brightness hits her with a sharp glint. She throws up a hand with a groan and turns her head away from the blinding rays that are filtering through the bedroom, but the frown that etches itself onto her face is not because she’s just been woken up by the dawn- it’s because the spot in the bed beside her is empty. 

She wonders if Seth will ever manage to sleep long enough beside her, so that she can wake up to him. Perhaps he wants to avoid the early morning awkwardness of climbing out of the same bed as her- he certainly seemed unwilling to fall asleep with her last night. Kate vaguely remembers him tensed up with his back to her before she finally felt her eyes grow heavy. 

She frowns to herself again and pulls the covers off her body swiftly- her bare legs feeling the slight chill that’s permeating around the log house. The sun is splitting through the trees outside though, and Kate hopes the temperature climbs because she really doesn’t fancy spending a day here with her miserable relatives if the weather too is dismal. 

She thinks of her Aunt then with a grimace as she trails out of the bedroom and into the tiny kitchen, her hands automatically turning the coffee pot on. Seth is nowhere to be seen, but she smiles despite his absence when she remembers how happy he had made her feel last night. 

He had let her wear his jacket and pick the music during the car ride from town back to the house, and he’d made her genuinely smile despite the fact she had run into her ex and had been humiliated by her family members. He seems to have an unsuspecting talent for lifting her spirits whenever she has been victim to her wounded feelings, and her heart always does some weird standstill at the thought of a man like him being so soft and…_loving_. 

Kate sighs as she pours the now hot coffee into a mug, watching the brown liquid fill the cup while trying not to think of how deep she’s already fallen for him. Of course she knew she always liked him, no matter how many times she tried to deny it to herself and to Kisa whenever she probed around with the subject. 

But she really understands now that she had been so wrong to do that. She’d been wrong to bury her feelings down like she was trying to mask them with dirt and stone and now they were crawling up from whatever grave they’d been lying in to take a hold of her. 

However the idea of romanticism, Kate has found, is such a cruel thing. She’s spent half her time here with Seth _believing_ their façade, and feeling giddy and nervous whenever he so much as stood beside her. She’s become so dependent on his smiles and soft little touches that whenever he’s out of sight - like now- she feels empty like some useless vessel of a girl. 

Her eyes snap from the mug of coffee in front of her when she hears the sound of an undeniable splash coming from the lake and her legs begin to slowly move towards the window. She peers out from behind the curtains and her previously calm heart decides to go haywire inside her chest when she sees a very wet and very _shirtless_ Seth drifting in the lake. 

“Sweet Jesus” she mutters when she watches him lift his toned arms to run his fingers through his hair- every muscle in his sinewy body flexes at the movement. She feels her face blush a little at the thought that she’s creeping on him like some pervy guy next door and she lets the curtain fall back into place. 

She contemplates walking back over to the kitchen and finishing her coffee but the desperate pull she feels inside herself makes her head towards the door. Kate is curious to see just how far she can step over that imaginary line her heart has already crossed when it comes to Seth. 

Outside, the heat is warm and comforting on her bare skin and she has to hold a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. The rays are glistening against the lakes surface, twinkling upon it like crystal and clothing Seth in a warm blanket of gold that compliments his skin colour. He spots her walking towards him on the wooden dock, and shoots her that eye crinkling smile that has her knees weak. 

“I was wondering where you were” Kate tells him, green eyes intent on watching him stroke towards her as she kneels down on the wood that has been underneath the sun’s gaze for too long. It’s blistering beneath her bare skin but she can’t seem to focus on the pain when Seth is bobbing in the water with his naked chest just a metre away from her. 

“Missed me?” he asks playfully, a thick eyebrow raised as he grips onto the wooden dock with huge hands. He pulls himself halfway up then, water trickling down every surface of his body and trailing its way down the black ink on his arm. His eyes look amber in the sun and are almost swallowed by the now wet black lashes that frame them. Kate almost forgets how to speak for a solid minute when he lets his eyes lock with hers. 

“Hardly” she scoffs quite unbelievably with a forming pink blush on her cheeks, but she regains herself rather quickly “you snore a little in your sleep, did you know? I would hardly miss _that_. No, I was just worried that Aunt Nancy had kidnapped you in the night” 

He laughs then, deep and loud, and it’s a sound that sends a thrill up her spine. God above, she loved it when he laughed because he really didn’t do it that often and whenever he did, it was pure and delightful to listen to. She also liked the fact that she could contribute to his fleeting happiness somehow even if it did come in the form of bad jokes. 

“If that did happen I probably wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale” he shudders a little but then his handsome face smooths out into a serious looking expression; one that expresses a genuine concern “How are you feeling now? You’re not still thinking about those idiots are you?” 

“No, definitely not” Kate shakes her head with a smile as she untucks her legs and lets them dangle over the edge of the dock “you were right, they were probably all drunk and none of them will remember anything. Besides, even if they do, they’re not worth it” 

“You’re better than all of them, Kate. They’re not even worth thinking about” Seth states firmly, amber eyes locked onto hers. She watches her feet as they kick the water for a while and then she smiles at him, her eyes skipping to his face. 

“Thank you” she says quietly, her voice breathy and soft for a moment. But she shuffles a little where she sits when the weight of his handsome gaze becomes too much. “You want to come inside for some coffee?” Kate asks him then, throwing a hand in the direction of the house. 

“I want to race you first, Fuller” Seth quirks an eyebrow and pushes himself away from the dock, the water lapping around his shoulders as he sinks a little. 

“No way” Kate laughs as she shakes her head, but that look of pure mischief on his face grows even deeper. He swims back towards her then and before she knows it his large hands are wrapped around her ankles. She tries to hide how her body jolts at the contact but the goosebumps that appear over her bare skin are hard to conceal. 

“Come on, Kate, it’s warm” he tugs her gently but her hands grip onto the side of the dock tightly. She tries to kick out at him but his firm hold on her makes it hard, and the action only makes him laugh deeply to himself. 

“I’m not getting in” she’s only half heartedly attempting to pretend like she doesn’t want to get in with him because the thrill of this type of banter between them (could she even consider it flirting?) sends flickers of warmth throughout her. 

She laughs loudly and melodically when he tugs her again and she slides rather ungracefully right off the dock, but his rough hands catch her waist before she becomes submerged completely. He was right, the water is warm, and her bare legs are hugged heatedly by the lapping rush of the lake as it swirls around them. 

“What was that you said about not getting in?” he smirks at her and she huffs indignantly, using her hands to splash a great deal of water at him. 

“You’re such a child” Kate scolds him playfully, kicking back in the water and letting it surround her as she floats “but you’re right. This is nice” 

Seth gazes at her as she bobs along the surface of the water, arms splayed outwards and her auburn hair glistening red in the sun as it fans around her head. His eyes try to skip over the white t-shirt that is clinging to her now soaking body, but he fails miserably and lets himself study how it’s practically transparent and how the black bra underneath is showing rather teasingly. 

Her eyes snap open then, moss green and intense as they meet his from across the water and he gulps with a guilty sort of blush colouring his skin. He shouldn’t be ogling her like she’s a piece of meat, but he knows his fond staring is due to the fact he finds her to be the most beautiful thing ever and not just an object for his lust to be satisfied with.

“Race you to the middle?” Kate suggests with a tilt of her head as she floats upright now, and before she can even say another word Seth ducks his head under the water and begins to furiously stroke towards the large expanse of water before them. 

She’s quick though and before he knows it she’s swimming beside him, arms pushing her small body forward and her legs leaving behind a spray of water that rains down on them. She laughs when he shoves her lightly as they stop in the middle to turn around, but she retaliates almost immediately and pushes on his shoulders. He ducks under the water and Kate takes the opportunity to take the lead back towards the dock, but an almighty squeal leaves her mouth when she feels his hands snake around her thigh to pull her down. 

The water hits her nostrils hard and it stings the back of her throat as she swallows it, and when she furiously kicks her way to the surface she’s sputtering and coughing outrageously. 

“You son of a bitch! You cheated!” Kate hurls at Seth, the venom in her tone not really resonating since her throat is now scratchy from lake water. Seth is once again over at the dock, floating on his back with his arms under his head, looking like the most smug asshole in the world. 

“Now, Kate, hasn’t anyone ever told you about being a sore loser?” he smirks at her but a playful fear that comes across his face smothers any cocky expression he wears once Kate swims back over to him. 

Her dainty hands press on his shoulders and with some force she manages to shove his heavy body down into the water, but she doesn’t have time to celebrate her triumph because suddenly she’s pulled beneath the lakes crystal surface again.

Their laughs ring throughout the area whenever both of them have enough time to breathe and Kate can’t help but enjoy kicking and splashing him when it results in him gripping her waist to pull her down. She likes when he touches her, for whatever reason, because she’s become addicted to that little rush her heart gets when he does. 

The water stills around them when both become tired and Kate’s chest heaves heavily when she manages to breathe without a lungful of water. Seth floats beside her, body close to hers and his hands idly tinkling the water's surface. She doesn’t even realise she’s edged nearer to him until she can feel his breath swipe across her wet face. 

He’s glorious under the basking glow of the early morning sun- so beautiful with his dark eyes and olive skin and Kate’s eyes go straight to the trail of water that is slowly trickling over his full mouth. She wants to kiss him so bad then that she feels as if she’ll explode. Just the thought of sliding her lips onto his and kissing him- stupidly and passionately- while clinging to his wet body is what makes her bob even closer to him.

His eyes turn cautious as he looks at her, but there’s a slight curve on his mouth that makes her think that perhaps he’s thinking the same thing. Maybe he wants to kiss her. _Impossible_, she scoffs to herself, he’s god like and unfairly beautiful and she’s well…_Kate_. Just Kate. 

She can feel his fingers ghosting against the ticklish skin of her waist- the touch just barely there but enough to cause her skin to itch like it’s on fire. She lets her eyes trail down the flame tattoo on his dripping wet skin and delights at the perfect symbolism it presents. He’s a scorching hot fire that just keeps burning, and Kate would gladly be set alight by him. 

“Katie!” the voice chirps like a songbird as it rings out around them, and Kate rips her eyes from Seth’s face with a startled jump. She can hear Seth groan in annoyance when they both spot the person who has interrupted whatever had just been happening between them. 

Darla now stands by the lake’s edge, just near the trees that cloak the small house from view, with her arm linked in her fiancees and a wide grin on her face. Kate waves over to her meekly as she begins to walk a little closer, and her stomach does a flip when she sees Kyle and his dark haired partner trail along behind them. 

Seth seems to sense her discomfort as she begins pulling at her very see through shirt and floats up close to her, his arms now having no qualms with snaking around her waist. She huffs out a shaky breath as he holds her flush to his chest, and her hands that have now begun to tremble wrap around his neck. 

It’s just for show, she reminds her heart in hopes it will stop hammering so much. It’s embarrassing and she’s pretty sure Seth can feel it against him. 

Darla is pretty in pink today, the dainty sundress coming to her knees and the sun shades that are the same colour of bubblegum are now raised from her eyes onto her head. She has a childish sort of humour painted on her face and her eyes skip excitedly between the couple who now cling to each other in the water. 

“Hey, Darla” Kate stammers out, her eyes trying their hardest to avoid Kyle. 

He stands behind her cousin with a blank expression on his face, but his eyes are boring down hard on Seth with a glimmer in them that is particularly hateful. The woman who stands beside him is the sort of fortunate being that has been blessed with undeniable prettiness. Her long dark hair is thrown over one shoulder in a graceful twist and her full lips are turned into a smile. 

Kate can’t help the pang of jealousy that shoots up her at the thought of how she must look in comparison right now. Wet hair, no makeup on and a transparent shirt that shows her less than sexy underwear. She’s just glad she isn’t wearing her comic strip bra set- that would have been mortifying.

“We were about to head around the estate for a stroll, and thought we’d come ask you to join us” Darla explains with a smile, as she gestures to the water “but it looks like you’re otherwise occupied”

“Yeah, sorry. We just thought a swim would be nice” Kate says, hyper aware that her face must be beet red right now, and a part of her knows it’s not because of Kyle and his new girl. It’s the fact that Seth has his big arms around her and she’s pressed to his very naked chest. 

“Well we’ll leave you lovebirds alone then” Darla winks rather dramatically and Kate could swear she hears Seth chuckle a little. They must look pretty convincing, wrapped around one another with blushing faces- well Kate is blushing, she’s not sure Seth _can_ blush. They must look like a couple caught having a fairly romantic moment. 

“We’ll see you later” Kate waves awkwardly, holding onto Seth’s neck with her free hand. 

“We’re having breakfast in the main house in half an hour and then we’re heading to church. So go get dressed when you manage to tear your hands away from each other and come join us” Darla says as she grabs Josh, but she throws a wink Kate’s way that is full of mischief. Kate knows her cousin is laying it on thick for Kyle’s benefit because she almost despises him as much as Kate does. She throws a grateful smile her way and waves once again as the two couples disappear onto the path behind the trees. 

“Church?” Seth questions Kate with a groan as he drops his hands from her waist. She reluctantly pulls herself away from him and tries to act as nonchalant as she can with a traitorous heart hammering away inside of her. 

“Oh come on, it’ll be fine” Kate tells him as she pulls herself up out of the water and onto the dock “what will happen? You’ll walk into the church and burst into flames?” 

She laughs to herself as she stands up and walks back towards the house, and Seth can’t quite tear his eyes away from the way her wet sleep shorts are clinging to her backside, the white fabric just barely revealing the black underwear she wears. Her curvy hips sway in that innocently teasing way that she’s so oblivious to when she walks and Seth has to bite his lip to stifle a groan. 

He’s a thirty three year old ex con man who’s staring at the ass of a preacher’s daughter who is ten years younger, and she expects him to sit in church of all places? Burst into flames, she had said. 

“I just might” Seth mutters to himself, ducking his head back beneath the water. 

* * *

The breakfast that is proudly set up in the large kitchen is one that looks surreal to someone who is used to chugging nothing but black coffee in the mornings, and Seth eyes the spread appreciatively as he sits in between Kate and Scott.

Darla seems to be undeniably proud of herself as she sways to and from the large countertops with handfuls of fruit bowls and plates of fresh smelling croissants. The table is wide and long and covered in vases of fresh flowers that half hide the other guests from view- something Seth is grateful for but he can see that from where Kate sits she can spy Kyle over the drooping heads of the daisies that sit in the blue vase in front of her. 

Seth can sense the uneasiness radiating from her because of Kyle’s presence and can’t help but notice how her leg bounces underneath the table and how her eyes flicker to him every few seconds like she’s contemplating stabbing him with a butter knife.

Kyle is trying very hard to pretend like Kate isn’t there, Seth can tell by the way his eyes glaze over her like she’s transparent or how he has chosen to sit at the furthest end of the long table. But every now and again he’ll stare up under his lashes to peer at her when he thinks nobody is looking, and it’s an action that has Seth clenching his fist under the table. 

He doesn’t like how Kyle watches Kate like he’s waiting to get her alone; to pounce his weak apologies onto her yet again when the opportunity to corner her arises. But Seth won’t let that happen if he has anything to do with it. He can’t bear the thought of the little shit anywhere near Kate out of pure protective instinct and cold jealousy. 

“Kate, calm down” Seth whispers, carefully plucking Kate’s hand from her shaking leg and giving it a squeeze.

Her green eyes jump straight to his and sparkle in that intense way that always leaves his stomach in knots. He’s seen her happy and excited, sad and angry but those eyes never cease to amaze him with their uncanny ability to express the deepest parts of herself. Right now they’re screaming a level of nervousness at him that makes him squeeze her hand even more. 

“Sorry, I’m just a little on edge” Kate whispers back to him, her eyes jumping past a large bowl of melon and over to Kyle. He’s now joking about some fishing trip he and Josh took their senior year in college- his voice rather too loud and obnoxious for Seth’s liking. He runs his hands through his long hair as he speaks and waves them around with a pompous sort of theatricality that makes Seth clench his jaw. Even Scott makes a noise beside him that sounds like a hateful snort. 

“Yeah I’m on edge just listening to the little fucker talk” Seth murmurs back to her, a murderous smirk etching itself onto his full lips. 

"This whole situation is just uncomfortable. He keeps staring at you like he wants to murder you" Kate hisses to Seth with a comical glint in her eye and pursed lips. Something tells Seth that Kate would not particularly care if he were to retaliate to any sort of violent behaviour from her ex. Perhaps she'd rather enjoy watching him beat him senseless. 

"Come on, princess, you really think he'd be able to murder _me_" Seth scoffs, looking down at their joint hands and delighting in the fact she's hasn't pulled away yet. Her hand is so much smaller than his, and so pale in comparison to his dark skin, but he loves the contrast. 

"I really don't think your masculine ego needs the boost, but no I don't think he'd be able to murder you" Kate smiles at him, her head leaning close to Seth as she whispers. His eyes are dancing across her features, taking in how her smiling lips downturn when she looks over his shoulder. 

"Is he looking again?" Seth asks her quietly and Kate nods to him as she let's her eyes fall away from the man who broke her heart. 

"Yep, and he just made sure to kiss Paloma when I was looking" Kate hisses, but adds quickly "not that it bothers me. I just don’t really want to see it" 

Her eyes drop to their hands, his large and hers dainty, and begins to trace the back of his rougher one with a finger. She’s not jealous of the fact that another woman gets to kiss Kyle, she truly is glad that she’s no longer in a relationship with him, but the truth of knowing that he’s moved on and is happy with someone else is hurtful. Especially when she’s the one who’s alone now and single. She’s the one who was cheated on for crying out loud! If anyone deserved love it was her and not _him_. 

“I feel like punching him, for real” Seth grimaces, sensing her profound sadness but she just shifts her gaze to him and smiles with dimples in her cheeks and a softness in her eyes that stifles him. Suddenly her hand slips from his and he feels a harsh sting rupture somewhere beneath his chest at her immediate disconnection. 

“I would love to see that happen, but I think I need some coffee first” Kate teases with that pretty upturned smile that has Seth grinning like an idiot from where he sits. She stands then and smooths over the baby blue denim of her skirt and fixes the tied blouse around her waist with hands that shake a little and then she saunters away with her chin cocked in the air. 

The smell of coffee has become addicting to Kate and she scolds herself as she takes in the aroma while pouring her fourth cup of the day, but she can worry about her over consumption of caffeine when she’s back in Houston. She can’t seem to really fight with herself on the subject when she knows she needs the energy stimulation. Of course she does! She’s stuck here with her relatives for a wedding that her ex fiance is best man at, and she’s pretending to be in a relationship. Her and coffee can be best friends this weekend. 

“I’ve just knocked on the motor home’s door, but your Daddy didn't answer” Darla says as she comes up beside Kate, placing a gentle hand on her cousin’s arm “you think he’ll come to service with us?” 

“It’s still early, maybe he’ll be up soon and come with us” Kate peers into her blue eyes, her voice lowered “but he hasn’t really been to church a lot in the past year, but I think he feels lost when he goes to service in Bethel. Maybe being here might encourage him to go” 

“I think it could be good for him” Darla says absently as she picks up a stray strawberry in a plastic punnet atop the counter. Kate doesn’t miss how her crystal eyes skip to where Seth sits, now deep in conversation with Scott. “Is Seth a religious man?” 

“No, definitely not” Kate shakes her head with a fond smile “I don’t think he believes in any of it, but he’ll be coming with us today” 

“Good, I like him. He seems to be good for you, Kate. You never looked this much in love when you were with Kyle” Darla points out with a soft smile and Kate can’t help the mushy way her heart melts when she rips her eyes away from her cousin to look at her fake boyfriend. He’s leaning over towards Scott, dark eyes peering at his phone and smiling that wide grin that makes her swoon. Scott is most likely showing him some embarrassing photo of Kate that he has stored in his incriminating albums but she doesn’t really care at all. 

“He’s a good man, he makes me happy” Kate tells her with a stifling truth. Seth is a good man and every time she’s around him she becomes so hopelessly ecstatic that she can never hide her smiles. 

“Well then, maybe it _will_ be your big day sooner than later” Darla excitedly states, giving Kate’s arm a gentle squeeze before turning to tread towards the table. Kate is left then imagining herself in a white dress walking down the aisle towards Seth and something in the pit of her stomach twists itself into a knot at the very thought. She sighs to herself and pushes the thought back into the corner of her imagination as she pours the hot coffee into two mugs and makes her way back towards the table. 

“Here you go” Kate hands Seth a cup of coffee that he accepts with an appreciative look on his face. 

“Thank you, princess” he says and the nickname that he usually calls her causes a pink, hot blush to cover her cheeks. He has called her that a hundred times before, but never in the company of her ex who had once thought pet names were only used by lovesick teenagers. She rather likes the way Seth calls her that and likes how warm she gets all over when he does. Kate has never heard him call anyone else princess, and she feels a sense of triumph inside of her each time he says it. 

She can practically feel Kyle’s eyes bore into her as she takes her seat beside Seth yet again and she rather purposefully leans against his side. She’s not sure whether she wants Kyle to feel jealous or whether she’s using that excuse to touch Seth more than she normally would. But whatever the reason she delights when he throws an arm around the back of her chair and begins to play with the ends of her auburn hair like it’s the most natural thing in the world. 

“So how did you guys find the lake house? You sleep alright?” Darla asks from across the table as she begins to butter a croissant. 

“Yeah it was lovely, wasn’t it Seth?” Kate asks with a slight tremor in her voice as the rough pads of Seth’s fingertips brush the back of her neck. It’s a gentle and innocent touch but she can’t help but feel like it’s completely intimate when she can feel Kyle’s eyes on her. 

“Well we didn’t do too much sleeping, now did we baby?” Seth chuckles from beside her, letting his hand stall it’s caressing to come rest on her shoulder. He pulls her against his side gently and Kate knows that if she looks his jaw would most definitely be set in that righteous jut and his eyes would be sparkling mischievously. 

She can feel the heat rise to her face, but with it comes a powerful sort of gloating that she can’t seem to be embarrassed about. She looks at Seth then with a smirk on her lips and brings a hand up to his face to brush her fingers along the stubble on his jaw. She swears she hears him sigh contently but she can’t be sure. 

“No, I guess we didn’t” she drops her hand from his face slowly and makes sure to let her eyes wander towards Kyle. He’s not even trying to hide the murderous glare on his face that he’s undeniably throwing Seth’s way. 

“Gross, dude. That’s my sister” Scott grimaces from beside Seth, a look of pure disgust on his face that irritates Kate to no end. 

“Oh grow up, Scott” she bristles, bringing her coffee cup to her lips just as her father walks into the kitchen. His hair is damp looking and his face is bright, and he looks positively ready to start the day. He bounds into the kitchen with eyes that shine with a delightful twinkle as he takes everyone in. 

“So, what are all you young folks talking about?” he asks as he slides into a seat beside his red haired niece. Everyone else goes silent but the preachers crystal eyes go straight to Seth who sits back in his chair with a collected sort of coolness radiating from him. 

“Religion, sir” he smirks calmly and if Kate’s face was red before, well now she’s pretty sure it’s turned scarlet.

_Religion_, Kate thinks with a blush that creeps all the way to her hairline. Just the very innuendo of Seth's words has her wishing for service to start already. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewatched the Wedding Date recently when I stayed over in my Aunt's house and I was fangirling the whole time because that movie inspired this fic and when the dance lesson scene came on I just knew I needed to include it in here! It's not exactly how it happens in the movie but it's similar and just as cliché. Enjoy guys and let me know how you liked it in the comments.  
ps song that "plays" in this scene is Sway by Michael Buble

_When we dance you have a way with me_

_Stay with me, sway with me_

The church is small and orderly, with meticulously painted walls of ivory and a wooden altar in the middle that sits atop a velvet mound of red. Before the service had started the townspeople had gathered on the manicured lawn outside to natter in friendly tones about the most monotonous topics, and Seth had spent the entire time gazing up at the white peak of the Southern Baptist church.

It had almost loomed down at him with a righteous sort of condemnation that had made the very fickle parts of himself cringe. 

Kate had been as courteous as always, smiling and embracing people she hadn’t seen in a while, and the image of her beaming within the shadow of a church gave Seth an insight into the girl she used to be back in Texas. The perfect preacher’s daughter who would smile in service as she listened to her Daddy’s sermons. The kind of girl who would have cowered away from the sight of him. 

But she sits close beside him now, her eyes turned down towards the printed out service pamphlet in her hands. She turns her head every now and again to chat away to Scott who sits on her other side, their voices mingling in with the soft murmur of the other church goers who are deep in conversation as they await the pastors entrance. 

Seth can’t help but feel slightly sick at the thought that he’s probably the furthest from faithful as one person could get and yet he sits here blatantly among the pews of believers. He’s never really walked on the path of religion to deviate from it exactly, but he knows that whatever higher power governs over this small church is most certainly wanting him out. He’s sitting beside Kate’s father who has his head bowed in silent prayer and the undeniable tangible peace that is radiating from the man is causing Seth to feel highly uncomfortable. 

The sole problem with being here in a caged in box full of consequential religious folk is that Seth Gecko does not feel _worthy_. He’s not good enough for Kate, even in pretend, and not a good enough man to sit here in the virtuous sight of the gilded gold cross that sits at the top of the church. 

He looks around at the other people who crowd the small chapel and wonders what sort of looks they would throw his way if they knew he had once made a living off of stealing. Or what kind of prayers they would say to save his soul if they knew how he’d been caught up with organised crime and had been thrown in jail. 

He pulls at his collar then, suddenly feeling hot under it and feeling like the moulded statue of the Lord Saviour that proudly sits in the corner is eyeing him judgingly. He throws his eyes upwards then to the vaulted ceiling and wonders why he feels so sinful in a place that is supposed to be built on forgiveness. 

He doesn’t think he’s been to a church since his father’s funeral- an event that had been emotionally confusing and dismal due to the fact there had only been three mourners in attendance. Himself, Richard and his Uncle Eddie who had taken them with him as soon as the dirt had been thrown on top of his father’s coffin in the churchyard cemetery. 

He remembers how the coffin had been nailed shut because what had been underneath would have been too horrific to witness. He’d had nightmares about his father’s charred corpse for weeks after. 

“Hey, you okay?” he hears the soft whisper of Kate from beside him and his gaze jumps from the ceiling and into the emerald green of her beautiful eyes. 

“Just thinking about the last time I was in a church” he tells her, his heart thrilling when she angles herself away from her brother and towards him; her bare knees tipping off his leg. 

“I’d say it was a long time ago?” she smiles at him, her eyes studying his expression that looks somewhat distant and crestfallen. He nods his head and looks absently towards the top of the church like he’s imagining a different scene before him. 

“It was my old man’s funeral” Seth confesses to her “I was only a kid when he died, but I can still remember it, you know? I haven’t been in a real church since, don’t know if it’s because I never believed or because it would have reminded me of that day” 

“Seth, I’m sorry” Kate tells him with a frown but her small hands slide across the space between them to grip his larger one “I feel terrible for asking you to join us now” 

“Don’t be” Seth shakes his head at her, winding his fingers through her hand. He can feel a boyish sort of giddiness rise in his chest to know that she’s not holding onto him because of appearance sake. Her brother and father sit at their sides, and her slimy ex sits in the pew right behind them but Kate is focused solely on Seth, and Seth alone. Her sparkly eyes are intent on his face and her fingers grip themselves between his with a genuine care. Seth feels as if God himself has just bestowed a blessing on him. 

“I stopped going to church for a while after my Mama died” Kate whispers to him, leaning into his side and letting Seth’s body heat cloak her warmly “I would build myself up to go, but when I went inside Bethel Baptist I remembered her lying in her coffin and I freaked out and would leave every time. But after a while I got the courage to go back because I found that it’s never too late to regain your faith. I know you don’t believe, but you don’t have to have your only memory in a church to be a bad one. This can be your way of replacing it” 

He stares at her then, taking in the way her small fingers are intertwined with his own; small and dainty compared to his and how he can feel the bare skin of her thigh against the back of his hand. He loves how her denim skirt hugs her hips and how the light green blouse she wears under her jacket makes her eyes dance like jewels. Her hair is redder than usual under the gleaming glow of the stain glass windows that are staged throughout the chapel and it glitters as it streams down her shoulders.

If Kate Fuller was a religious idol he would surely fall to his knees in worship and pray with clasped hands and a surge of devoted ramblings. God above he’d gladly go to church every day for her. 

“I have you here with me, princess” Seth tells her with a smile just as the congregation shushes at the entrance of the pastor “I think I feel better already” 

* * *

“Not so bad, huh?” Kate nudges his side as soon as they file out of the church’s double doors. The congregation are in high spirits, chatting away and laughing loudly as they all swarm towards the parking lot and the green lawn. Seth finds himself bewildered at the concept of how mass could make people become so joyful. 

“It wasn’t as horrible as I imagined it to be” Seth smiles at her widely when she fakes a shocked gasp and nudges him in the side. 

He can see Kyle standing over by the large oak that rests steadily in front of the church as his eyes skip towards it, and Seth can't help but notice how he watches the two of them with narrowed eyes every few seconds and spends the rest of his time acting like he doesn’t care about Kate at all. Seth could feel Kyle's eyes on him during the entire service and could practically sense the pure annoyance radiating from him. Seth finds it comical how delusional the younger man is; how he can become seething over Kate when he doesn’t have any right to her anymore. 

“Well you’ll have to do it all again in two days for the wedding ceremony” Kate tells him and Seth is surprised at how much he doesn’t cringe at the thought.

He’s in no way becoming religious, but the thought of sitting with Kate in a place of worship again doesn’t seem too bad in his opinion. While the rest of the congregation had found their peace in the words of the scripture the pastor had read out; Seth had found salvation in the way Kate had held his hand or how she kept flickering her eyes towards him and smiling that dimpled smile that set his heart racing. 

He’d become so enamoured with the heat coming from her body, the scent of her perfume and the way her hand had gently brushed off his thigh when she had shuffled in the pew that he had hardly heard a word that had been said. But despite the fact he hadn’t exactly heard the words of the scripture, he feels as if he can understand the concept of divinity even more now than he had yesterday or this morning. 

Kate Fuller has brought him closer to religion than he’s ever been before. 

Once they descend the painted white steps of the church, Kate’s ever happy cousin swarms them with a flurry of pink cotton and a row of dazzling teeth. Seth can’t seem to get used to the bubblegum sweet, perfect girl next door personality that radiates from the bride to be, but he doesn’t _dislike_ her exactly. Despite her obvious exuberance and passion for looking outwardly better than everyone else, there is a fondness in her eyes when she looks at Kate that Seth can completely understand. She loves her cousin dearly; that much is certain. 

“How did you like it?” Darla asks with a smile, and it takes Seth a second to realise she’s speaking to him. 

“Oh, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be” Seth says, scratching a non existent itch on his neck “I’m not much of a church goer back home though” 

“So Kate has told me” Darla looks between her cousin and Seth with a twinkle in her blue eyes that is downright unnerving “anyway, we’re heading for our dance lesson now and the bridal party have a dress fitting at two. Would you like to join us, Seth? You’re more than welcome” 

“Do we have to go? I mean dancing isn’t really my area of expertise, Darla” Kate stammers out, her eyes flickering towards the oak tree that Kyle still stands under. 

“Kate, you’re my maid of honor which means you’ll be joining in with the first dance. You need a little practice before then. I’m not going to have your two left feet be the cause of my wedding being a disaster” Darla folds her arms a little haughtily and huffs out a breath that causes her shoulders to sag. 

“It also means I’m being forced to dance with the best man, who is also my cheating ex fiance” Kate snaps, her eyes turning towards the graveled ground of the churchyard. 

Seth does not like the idea of Kate being held by Kyle in any sort of way, romantic or platonic or just downright unwillingly, and he finds the thought of it causes the blood to boil under his skin. No doubt Kyle would use this as an ample opportunity to corner Kate the way he wants to, and Seth had promised himself he would not let that happen. 

“Don’t worry about Kyle, I’m coming with you” Seth announces, his voice steady and determined “I’ll be there the whole time” 

Whatever words of gratitude Kate had been intent on offering are lost when the sharp ringtone of her phone sounds from inside her jacket pocket. She plucks it from her pocket and glances at the screen once before apologetically throwing a look her cousin’s way. 

“I have to take this. I’ll be a minute” she says and then turns to Seth “it’s Kisa” 

“Hey, Kisa” Kate answers with when she swipes her thumb across the phone screen and steps away from the small gathering outside the church. Her friend is silent on the other end for a minute but her breathing gets staggered after a while and then a huge sniff crackles in Kate’s ear. Her heart lurches for a second when she imagines something terrible has happened to her friend, but Kisa’s first words dispel any sort of fear inside her. 

“Richard just proposed” Kisa sounds equally delighted and distraught; her happiness and overwhelming surprise mixing themselves into her voice. Kate takes a moment to answer, her heart altogether stopping in her chest. 

“He did not” she says slowly in disbelief - imagining Richie on one knee with a shiny ring in his hand. It’s an image that causes a flood of warm content to spread over her. She loves Kisa, and Richie, and their happiness was well deserved "oh my goodness, Kisa! Congratulations! I can't believe it!" 

“I know, I can’t believe it either. He just got down on one knee and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me! I stood there for ages without speaking” Kisa sniffles in between giggles “I sound so silly for crying, don’t I?” 

“What? No! The love of your life just asked you to marry him! If that was me I’d be crying too” Kate reassures her, eyes glancing over to where Seth is now standing by his car with his own phone clutched to his ear. He has a grin on his face as he talks and Kate concludes that Richard must have called Seth while Kisa called her. 

“I’m just so happy, Kate! I had to call you because I knew you’d be happy for me too” 

“Of course I am! I can’t wait to get back and see you, so we can start planning this amazing wedding” Kate laughs “I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more than I’ll enjoy Darla’s”

“How is it going there? Have you convinced everyone that you’re a woman in love?” Kisa asks as she sniffles extra loudly, probably wiping away her tears. Kate finds it almost strange how apparently emotional Kisa sounds despite the stoniness she outwardly portrays, but then again, love does strange things to people. 

“I’m having a bit of trouble trying to convince myself I’m not” Kate mumbles then, her eyes closing momentarily as she sighs. 

“Has anything happened between you and Seth yet? I feel like it’s just a matter of time” 

“Nothing has happened” Kate says, musing a little after she speaks “well maybe there was _something_” 

“Wait, what? Tell me everything” her friend excitedly says, the scraping of a chair following her words. Kate can imagine her sitting cross legged with a body tensed from anticipation. 

“It wasn’t anything major. We just went for a swim in the lake and then I thought that maybe he was going to kiss me” Kate almost whispers, looking over her shoulder to make sure nobody is listening “but he didn’t, and then the moment was just…_over_” 

“Kate, you’ve been lying to yourself for a long time when it comes to Seth Gecko. You need to just own up to yourself that you’re in love with him. I see the way you look at him, and how you don’t date or allow yourself to be happy with anyone else” Kisa tells her with a stifling truth in her voice “you’ve been waiting for him to make a move, and maybe he’s afraid too” 

“So you’re suggesting that _I_ make a move?” Kate almost laughs but doesn’t. She can’t logically fathom the idea of actually acting out her desires when it comes to Seth. How could she possibly allow herself to initiate something like that only to be shot down? It would be mortifying if she were to kiss him and he rejected her. The thought alone makes her sick. 

“Trust me, Kate. Seth is a man that is afraid of his own feelings, and he _has_ feelings for you. He just needs you to make the first move so he’s sure you feel the same”. Kisa’s voice is full of a deep reassurance but all Kate manages to feel is a nervous sickness bubbling up inside of her at the thought of how cripplingly she desires him. She wants to love him so deeply that it causes his bones to ache. She wants Seth to hold her so all those cracks inside her, all those wounds inside of her that don’t bleed, can be sewn back together. She wants that, more than anything. Perhaps setting aside her own doubts and delving into the unknown will be the only way she’ll ever know for sure what she means to Seth. 

“I’ll think about it” Kate sighs out, running a hand across her forehead as if to dispel all her thoughts with the cool sting of her skin “and in the meantime, I'll enjoy pretending” 

“Don’t kid yourself, Kate” Kisa tells her friend softly “It’s never been pretend for you” 

* * *

The dance studio is one of those professionally pristine ones that boasts awards and trophies encased in glass cabinets along the walls. It’s walls are adorned with floor to ceiling mirrors that catch the sunlight coming from the windows and throws it around the wide room. Seth thinks the whole arrangement of having to practice dancing with one’s partner before your own wedding is ludicrous. Shouldn’t everyone just have natural chemistry with their intended? 

But from where Seth sits at the small table at the back of the room he can observe how Darla’s fumbling fiance keeps stepping on her feet every few seconds. Venganza- the dark haired dancing instructor rolls her eyes exasperatedly and shouts something about following the rhythm of the song playing through the speakers. 

Seth just hopes Richie doesn’t drag him along to something like this when he’s planning his wedding. But he can almost garauntee that Richie and Kisa will probably be married in a ceremony a little more low key than what Seth can imagine Darla has planned. He smiles to himself however when he remembers the phone call he’d had with his brother not an hour ago. 

His little brother was getting married. _Fucking married._ He feels like he hasn’t stopped smiling like a goddamn idiot since he’d heard the news. Despite his first reservations he’d had about Kisa, he knows deep down she’s the one for Richard. She makes him happy- more happy that Seth has ever known his brother to be. He can understand that level of contentment perfectly since Kate makes him feel that way every time he looks at her. 

Hearing that his brother has taken the next step in his life has put things into perspective for Seth. He doesn’t just see Kate as some girl he has feelings for. No, Kate is _it_ for him.

She’s that girl he's been fantasising about ever since he found out girls were kissable and loveable at twelve years old. She's the girl he wants to have lazy kisses with on a Saturday morning, the one he wants to hear singing in the shower when he wakes up for work, the girl he wants to have silly arguments with only to have make up sex with after. He wants her to leave her toothbrush at his place and replace his sugar with the artificial sweetener she uses in her tea and convince him to redecorate. He wants kids with her; a little girl with her green eyes and his dark skin or a boy with her cleverness and his flare for mischief. 

Richard is on his way to fulfilling all those little milestones with Kisa, while Seth is in the middle of a divorce. Two different ends on the spectrum. 

He loves Kate though, more than he’s ever loved any woman, _or anyone_; and he knows that once Vanessa is positively paid off and disappeared then he’ll come clean. He can’t risk losing Kate if she finds out now- not during this time that’s stressful enough for her. Besides, Seth isn’t even sure if Kate likes him back let alone _love_ him. He needs to gauge her feelings a little more before he can fully throw himself into a hearty confession. He wants her to be his, that much is evident, but he also wants to be her friend forever. How could he possibly be her friend if he declared his love for her and was shot down? He would never be able to look at her again. 

He looks at Kate now however, from across the room and takes in how she stands idly by with her arms folded. She’s uncomfortable looking and her teeth is worrying her bottom lip in anticipation of dancing with Kyle. Once again Seth condemns this ridiculous spectacle and wishes that she didn’t have to have any sort of contact with Kyle. 

Could she not just dance with him at the wedding one time, clumsiness be darned, and spare herself from having to be anywhere near him now? But Seth knows he’s being selfish and only really wishes that he didn’t have to be here to witness it. He’s being unreasonably jealous but he can’t help it when he has noticed Kyle staring at Kate too many times to count.

Kyle’s fiance Paloma seems to be totally unbothered by the situation and chooses the time to scroll through her phone from where she sits at the next table. Or perhaps she _is_ bothered and is just choosing not to look at them to spare herself.

Seth can’t help but focus on them and clenches his jaw when Venganza instructs them to step closer to one another. Kate is mortifyingly awkward and lays her hands on Kyle’s shoulders in such a gentle way that looks as if she’s afraid he’s going to electrocute her. Her eyes skip across the room to find Seth’s and when he offers her a smile of encouragement it seems like her whole body sags with the sigh she lets out. Kyle turns his head then and glares darkly in Seth’s direction. 

_Calm down Seth,_ he tries to talk to himself, _it wouldn’t be very gentlemanly to go over and grab Kate away from him. Just play it cool....**Be cool. **_

But when the music starts and the little shit grabs Kate around the waist it takes all of his willpower to sit there and watch without storming across the room to pull him around by his long hair. He spends the next twenty minutes watching them as they awkwardly try to follow the choreographed steps to Darla and Josh’s first dance song which is slow and romantic. Kate keeps her head turned and her jaw clenched and won’t look into Kyle’s eyes or allow his body to press against hers- always keeping him at a distance. Seth is sure she’s stepped on his feet almost fifteen times but the little smirks she tries to hide after each time confirms his suspicions that she’s doing it on purpose. 

The music stops and Venganza who is fluid when she moves, stalks over towards the bride to be and her groom to discuss something which gives Kate an opportunity to leave Kyle and make her way towards Seth. 

"You're so clumsy with one another! I would never have guessed you were engaged!" Venganza scolds the nearly weds. Her heavily accented voice carries over to where Seth is sitting, and he can't help but smirk at the crimson blush that spreads across Darla's face. No doubt she had been convinced she'd be perfect at this. 

Kate's deep sigh makes him tear his eyes away from the spectacle before him and to her as she stalks past his table with a roll of her hips that is downright disrespectful. The flowy denim of her skirt clings to her hips beautifully, and Seth finds something deep down aches and pulls in his lower stomach. He looks quickly away from her when she turns to look at him. 

“I don’t know about you but I’ve never been so bored in all my life” she cheekily smiles at him as she leans against the vending machine that rests behind the table he’s sitting at. He stands from his chair and watches as she fishes coins through the machine and punches in the code for a bottle of water. 

“You’re a terrible dancer” Seth states bluntly, trying to hide a smile when she turns those fabulous green eyes in his direction and glares devilishly. 

“I have a terrible partner” Kate says a little loudly, her head snapping towards where Kyle now stands across the room with his hands on his hips, chatting away to some of the other members of the bridal party. 

“True” Seth ponders with a shrug remembering how the young man had danced like a stiff tree “but you also need to loosen up, you look too stiff” 

“Are you an expert at dancing or something?” Kate quips at him sarcastically after uncapping her bottle of water “is this the part where you confess to me that you secretly went to ballet lessons as a child?” 

“Fuck off, Kate. Do you honestly think I’d ever wear tights?” Seth laughs with a raise of his eyebrows. He takes the water from her hands gently and places it down on the table; she eyes him confusedly then when he takes her dainty hand in his and leads her away from the vending machine and out to the middle of the floor. 

The song now coming from the speaker is a little louder than the one before, and more upbeat, the jaunty rhythm of it pulsing throughout the room. The others are over by the mirrors, either in deep conversation with the dancing instructor who is now waving her hands around to illustrate her pointed choreography or are leaning against the walls with boredom.

“When you were dancing with Kyle your arms were too rigid” Seth says as he lets his fingers trail down her arm from her shoulder to her wrist. She watches his face the whole time while he focuses on his movements, and he brings one of her hands to rest on his shoulder while he grips the other one. 

“Maybe that’s because I was thinking of strangling him the whole time” Kate huffs out, breath a little uneven when he lets one of his hands come to the small of her back. He pushes it into her gently and forces her closer to him; her chest presses to his middle and suddenly her heartbeat becomes erratic at the feel of his body against hers.

“I could tell” Seth chuckles as he holds her close, beginning to gently sway to the music “now just follow my lead” 

Her body seems to know exactly what his wants to do because when he moves, she moves, and surprisingly in time to the music. She’s consumed by the feel of his calloused palm in hers, the way her fingertips soothe over the back of his neck and how her hips press to his as he twirls them. He’s a good dancer, much better than Kyle or any other man she’s ever danced with which is a measly number. But still, he knows exactly what he’s doing and Kate can’t help but notice how sexy the music is and how good he smells, and _oh God_ how strong he feels against her. 

She’s not even aware the rest of the room are eyeing them with fascination because she’s just so consumed by Seth. 

“I haven’t stepped on your feet once” Kate remarks with a giggle after he twirls her expertly and grips her in close again. Seth smiles widely and leans into her, that delicious smell of his cologne filling her senses. 

“All you needed was a better partner” 

Her eyes flicker to his then and she searches through them with a sudden curiosity, but what she’s looking for exactly is uncertain. An answer perhaps, to the pressing question of her unreciprocated feelings. Maybe she wants to see a spark in his eyes that will confirm her deepest desires, but she’s not sure she can see it. 

“I don’t think I can dance with Kyle, like this” Kate says a little breathlessly when he twirls her yet again, her hair fanning out around her face. His eyes are intent on hers and that smile he hasn’t stopped wearing on his face is making her knees go weak. His arm slinks around her tighter and Kate blushes at the thought that perhaps her legs really had gone to jelly. 

“I don’t think I’d want you to dance with him like this” Seth whispers in her ear as the music builds “but I’m just selfish like that, princess” 

Kate doesn’t know what to say to that or what to make of it so she stays silent and lets her deep scarlet blush do the talking for her. She can’t help but smile triumphantly at herself for how easy and effortlessly she can dance with him and the two of them end up smiling and giggling like a pair of teenagers for the rest of the dance. 

She’s breathless and her heart is thumping when the music ends, and the only thing in the room that matters is Seth and the colour of his eyes. They’re a deep amber now, the sunlight beaming through the window making them brighter than normal and there’s something else in them too. Something flickering in their depths like a nearly waxed out candle, but it sparks behind them and causes them to light with a glimmer of something that Kate had been searching for earlier. 

She leans towards him then, her toes stretching up in her ballet flats and her lips part ever so delicately to let her ragged breaths out. Seth’s brow twitches ever so slightly before he leans towards her, his own full lips opened and Kate can’t help but feel warm all over when his breath tickles her face and swarms over her throat. If she would just lean two inches more her lips would be right on his and they’d be kissing, but her heart stalls in apprehension. 

A loud sound of clapping rings throughout the dance hall, the sound solitary and dull as it travels towards them. Kate and Seth break apart, their heads turning in the direction of the lonely applause and Kate’s face turns the shade of a beet when she notices how every pair of eyes are on them. She’s hyper aware then of how close she’s pressed to Seth, but his firm grip on her causes her to stay frozen against him- and she’s not really sure she wants to part from him just yet. 

Venganza walks towards them with a beam on her beautiful face, her hands finishing their clapping. She points to them then and looks over her shoulder at all the other couples who seem to be admiring them, but Kyle looks positively murderous. 

“_That_ is how it’s done” she says with a jut of her chin “if I didn’t know any better I would have thought you were the couple getting married” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> our two love birds are getting closer and closer......I feel a kiss coming on soon


End file.
